Rainier Beach History Quilt

"We decided to make a quilt. It’s cool. It shows all kind of things that happened in history in this neighborhood. We learned to work together. We learned to share and work on each other’s squares and captions. Park and Mikala helped us. We made our sewing skills better. Thank you for letting us display our quilt in the library! "- Sydney, Aden, Jahlil, and Sam, presenting their Rainier Beach History Quilt to the librarian at the Rainier Beach Library.

In the spring of 2005, the RVHS presented a slide show of Rainier Beach History to three classes of 2nd graders at the New School, as part of their study of the neighborhood. Out of that study, a number of community projects emerged, including the Rainier Beach History Quilt.

The Quilt was designed and made by four 2nd-grade boys. They selected 16 significant moments in Rainier Beach history and drew pictures depicting each one. They transferred the pictures to cloth and sewed borders around the pictures to create colorful panels for the quilt, which was assembled by parent volunteers.

The students presented the Quilt to the Rainier Beach Library, where it was displayed for 6 months. It has since been on display at History House in Fremont, at the Rainier Valley Cultural Center, and at the New School.

Guide to Rainier Beach History Quilt

Saber Tooth Tiger 8,000 B.C.	Ske-telb-shabsh Native Americans in the Rainier Beach area before 1900	In 1869 George Dunlap climbed a tree on Beacon Hill and looked east.	He saw Lake Washington and his family decided to settle there.
People used canoes to get around.	They hunted for their food. They got water from wells.	A house boat by the train tracks, about 1900.	The Hausler family opened a meat shop in 1902.
Rainier Avenue used to be a streetcar line, 1891-1936.	People came here from many countries.	The Hauslers built a new building at Rainier and Rose Street in 1922.	The Hausler building is still there.
Now we have cars on Rainier Avenue.	Lots of different people live here.	We go to the New School.	What will the future look like?