History
In 1911, King County voters first turned down, then approved plans to build a new structure for county government. The site settled on had once been owned by city founder Henry Yesler.
Architect A. Warren Gould proposed a twenty-three story tower to handle anticipated growth in county functions, but the county commissioners preferred a more modest beginning. Starting in 1914, a five-story steel frame and reinforced concrete structure was built, and dedicated May 4, 1916 as the five-story City-County Building. In 1930, six floors were added, and later a three story 'attic'. Modernization efforsts in 1967 added air condition and heavily modified the appearance of the building. In 1987, the King County Courthouse was registered as a King County landmark, which limits the style of future remodeling of public areas to restoring the original appearance.
After the 2001 Nisqually earthquake the Courthouse was seismically retrofitted. The extensive damage done to older buildings in the area by the 6.8 quake pushed the County to move forward with this project. Upon completion, murals and a treatment of the marble floor on the first floor of the Courthouse were noted decorative touches.
Read more about this topic: King County Courthouse
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“I am ashamed to see what a shallow village tale our so-called History is. How many times must we say Rome, and Paris, and Constantinople! What does Rome know of rat and lizard? What are Olympiads and Consulates to these neighboring systems of being? Nay, what food or experience or succor have they for the Esquimaux seal-hunter, or the Kanaka in his canoe, for the fisherman, the stevedore, the porter?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The view of Jerusalem is the history of the world; it is more, it is the history of earth and of heaven.”
—Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881)
“America is, therefore the land of the future, where, in the ages that lie before us, the burden of the World’s history shall reveal itself. It is a land of desire for all those who are weary of the historical lumber-room of Old Europe.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)