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The Atlantic Street Center, a youth-focused social service agency, is celebrating a hundred years of serving the citizens of the Rainier Valley. Snapshots tell the story of growth and change with the times. All photos are used with the permission of the Atlantic Street Center unless otherwise credited. Atlantic Street Center began life in 1910 as the Deaconess Settlement House at 1519 Rainier Avenue South. The methodist Deaconesses who founded the charity wished to serve the unmet needs of the many Italian immigrant families in "Garlic Gulch" (North Rainier). The settlement house idea - a place for immigrants to meet, learn, and sometimes even live as they became accustomed to their new lives - was a common feature of the Progressive Era in many cities. The most famous settlement house was Jane Addam's Hull House in Chicago. The Atlantic Street Center owes its founding to a group of Methodist Deaconesses, lay women who dedicated themselves to full-time volunteer work among the poor. These women wear the traditional garb of blue dress, white neck ruffle and simple bonnet. They received professional training and did not marry. Deaconesses today, while fewer in number, are free to marry and dress as they wish. Early Programs In the early decades, Deaconess Settlement offered programs for all ages, including literacy and nutrition classes for adults, social programs, religious programs, and kindergarten and baby programs. Visiting nurse services was a major focus. Children perform a "health play." The sashes list positive attributes, such as "Conscience," "Good Health," Good Temper." Religious Ties Deaconess Settlement was affiliated with the United Methodist Church. In the early years, religion was very much a part of the services offered, which included a Sunday School and evening preaching services. Today Atlantic Street Center is completely non-sectarian, but values a close relationship with the United Methodist Church. Sunday School children perform a nativity play. The Settlement House Grows Up In 1927, Deaconess Settlement built a new home for its expanding services. An Italianate-style brick building was constructed on South Atlantic Street. This building still serves as administrative offices for Atlantic Street Center. Over time, many settlement houses have morphed into the family and neighborhood centers we know today. The Atlantic Street Center operates two family centers, at New Holly and in Rainier Beach, in addition to its offices and programs on Atlantic Street at the head of the valley. Something for Everybody Deaconess Settlement became the Atlantic Street Center during the 1950s, a name change that reflected a more professional, and less religious, approach to charity work. Gradually, trained social workers took over management of the agency, which continued to provide a variety of counseling, school-based, and recreational programs. A sample schedule from 1955 lists the following activities offered by or at the Atlantic Street Center: Modern Dance, Adult Sewing, Playschool, Summer Day Camp, Boy Scouts, Campfire Girls, Teenage Nights, Center Boys and Girls Chorus. Refocusing Beginning in the '60s, Atlantic Street Center realized it could no longer afford to be all things to all people. The agency refocused its efforts on troubled youth, working with the schools and with federal grants focused on delinquency prevention. Communities of color now made up much of the Rainier Valley and the agency began advocating for the needs of these families. Today the Atlantic Street Center continues its focus on youth and families, serving over 3,000 children from its North Rainier headquarters and family centers at New Holly and Rainier Beach.

This 1908 photo of Columbia City was taken looking north along 37th Avenue from Dawson Street at the foot of Hitt’s Hill. It is a primitive scene: a muddy track veers around a raw stump and an oddly listing tree. Crooked planked sidewalks wind along in front of the wooden houses. The original Columbia School building, with its distinctive bell tower, is visible on the left. The only sign of modernity is the line of utility poles marching down the hill. When this photo was taken, Columbia City, founded in 1891, had just been annexed to the City of Seattle. Some 300 people lived in the little town, which was connected to Seattle by a streetcar that ran down what is now Rainier Avenue. Fast forward to 2004: the hill has been graded, the streets are paved, and the utility poles have been moved to the west side of 37th Avenue. The old Columbia School was torn down in 1922 after a one-storey school was built behind it. The new school’s slender white smokestack is visible on the far left. On the right, a block of houses has been replaced with a large flat-roofed building. This building was built in 1979 as an expansion of the manufacturing plant that has been in operation in Columbia City for nearly 50 years. The company began in 1955 as a gasket and machine shop called Fabricators, Inc. in the old streetcar barn at Rainier and Hudson. (The streetcars had quit operating in 1937.) It became Fluorocarbon, Inc. in 1973, then changed its name to Furon around 1995. The company was bought by Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics in October, 1999. Today the plant employs 95 people and provides molded plastic and foam products to the aviation, medical, and computer industries. Only one feature remains the same in this altered landscape: the small peaked-roof house just beyond the plastics plant, visible in the 1908 photo behind the second utility pole. In the early 1900s, the house belonged to the Womach family, who owned a fuel business nearby. Even this building has changed: in 2002 it was lifted off its foundation and a lower storey was built beneath it. Teng Lauk, a Sudanese immigrant, has opened the Maar Store on the new ground floor of the building. Double Exposures: the Rainier Valley Rephotography Project The Rainier Valley Historical Society, worked with local photographer Kerry Zimmerman, in selecting historical photographs from its collection and recaptured those images as closely as possible in the Rainier Valley of today. We then researched both the changes and the remnants of the past that are revealed in the photographs, and presented the images to the public. Double Exposures is supported by King County 4Culture and the Rainier Rotary Foundation.

Abstract: Mr.Coleman discusses buying a house and growing up in Rainier Valley, working in an Alaskan cannery and leisure time activities there, work in Bremerton shipyard during WWI, a ship accident at Cake Rock, Puget Sound, his brief stay in the Army during WWII, treatment of Japanese during the war, employment of women during both World Wars, and observations on the Siwash people. NOTE: We acknowledge that the term “siwash” is a derogatory term used against the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest. However, we cannot edit or ignore the use of this term as to erase it would be as bad as not acknowledging the hurtful legacy of the word.

The discussion will touch on issues of police brutality and accountability, the current swell of activism and street protests, everyday micro-aggressions, and casual racism told through the personal stories of the panelists. After the panel discussion, there will be a community discussion and an opportunity to speak. Speakers: Delbert Richardson, Educator, Historian Maury Diakite, Artist Patty Wells, Business Owner Tony Benton, Radio Station Manager Photo: The Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (CHOP), June 2020.

Growing up the eldest of ten children with a single mother, Ruby Chow learned the power of ordinary people helping each other out. Inspired by Madame Chiang Kai-Shek's eloquent speeches on behalf of her people, Chow made a promise that "if she was ever in a position to help others, she would." This August 19, 1987 file photo shows Ruby Chow, the matriarch of Seattle's large Chinese-American community. Family members said the restaurateur and politician died Wednesday, June 4, 2008, at her Seattle home of heart failure. She was 87. The Chow's restaurant was a gathering place for Seattle's movers and shakers. Roby Chow became a leader within the Chinese community, despite traditions that kept women in the background. She also worked to "demystify the Chinese community an culture" in the white community. Ruby Chow eventually turned her talents to public office, serving as the first Asian American on the King County Council from 1973 to 1985. Her accomplishments included establishing bilingual education in public schools.

When our Food Stories cookbook was being written we compiled not just recipes but recorded oral histories from people and these oral histories are recorded. So today, we are focusing on Dora Abney, her red velvet cake recipe, and what Juneteenth meant to her. You may be asking yourself, what is Juneteenth? Juneteenth is the celebration and commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States. President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, in the middle of the Civil War. But the proclamation didn’t reach many slaves until much later. Union soldiers often delivered the news as they moved through the South.  It wasn’t until June 19, 1865, two months after the Civil War ended, that slaves in Texas learned that they were free. Formerly enslaved people  and their descendants continued to celebrate the anniversary of their freedom every year on June 19th, which came to be known as “Juneteenth.” As African Americans migrated to other parts of the country, they took the holiday with them. Juneteenth was first celebrated in Seattle in 1890. “Red foods represented the blood that was shed during slavery – red pop, red velvet cake. Watermelon. And chicken barbecue, barbecued ribs. The blood was really flowing! Dora Abney in 2003 discussing why Red food is served at Juneteenth celebrations, Rainier Valley Food Stories Cookbook Below is an excerpt of Dora Abney’s oral history. This oral history was conducted in 2003 for Rainier Valley Historical Society’s Food Stories Cookbook. Dora Abney in 2003 was the Director of Twinks Early Childhood Education Center and Preschool in Columbia City. She is originally from Marshall, Texas, where her family celebrated Juneteenth. She moved to Seattle in the early 1960s and has lived in the Rainier Valley for more than 30 years. Here she shares her memories of Juneteenth and explains the importance of the holiday for African Americans -- and others – today. Everything was fresh because in June it’s at the end of the harvest for the South. So we would have corn on the cob – everything was fresh, fresh everything – fresh chicken out of the yard, fresh chicken off the farm, barbecue ribs. What the women made was cake and pie. And the rest of it the mens did. They got a pig in the ground, cook it all night. Then they’d put on a fire and have the ribs and stuff be on bars hanging over the fire, not like what they do now, with a grill. They just hang it. It would cook, they’d roll it over. You don’t hardly see it anymore. The men would do the whole work!” What I can remember about Juneteenth is mostly my dad. I just remember how he used to say, “Juneteenth, that’s a big thing for us,” and by being born in the South, I kinda understood what he was saying. I saw what was going on, but didn’t really understand why. Some people say it’s like the Fourth of July, but this particular day, it was more exciting for my father. Now I recognize why, because that was the day they considered they got their freedom. It was his dad’s dad’s dad – it was passed down. They understood what it meant, and why that day was so meaningful. I got the idea that it was for freedom, but the history behind it was really not told, because it’s a sad situation, what had really happened. But he would always go out and shop like it was Christmas, and he would buy food, picnic stuff.  Whether it fell on a Sunday or Monday, it was a holiday to us. Everybody in the neighborhood, everybody in the city took off. The whole city was shut down. And we would picnic away. It was hot. My father, he would always sing, and he would play ball, and he was just excited. All the mens, they played ball. We packed up and we went to the baseball field. We would just celebrate. The men and the women would just dance. The kids would look, ‘cause you know, we didn’t know. As I got older it was more explained to me. So now, I’m trying to feed that little knowledge that I know to the other children – not only just black, everyone – to understand that – it’s freedom. When we came to Washington State it kind of faded out of the family, people didn’t celebrate it. They said, “What do you mean, Juneteenth? We don’t celebrate that.” So I figured I’d let it slide. Then about four years ago, when I started at the daycare center, I brought it up again. I said, “We need to celebrate Juneteenth. The kids don’t know what it’s about.” So in 2000 we had a Juneteenth celebration at Twinks, where we blocked off the street, we sold barbecue, and the kids played. It was exciting. I said “Juneteenth,” and then to me, everybody blossomed. All of a sudden everybody did know about it: “Yeah, I heard about that, what is it about?” So we started digging up information so we could put it out, so people understand what it is. During her oral history, Dora Abney gave us her recipe for red velvet cake. RED VELVET CAKE with Cream Cheese Frosting Cake: ½ cup shortening 3 Tbs. cocoa 1 ½ cups sugar 1 cup buttermilk 2 ½ cups sifted cake flour 1 tsp. salt 2 eggs 1 Tbs. vinegar 1 tsp. vanilla 1 tsp. baking soda 1 tsp. butter flavoring 1 ½ oz bottle of red color Cream shortening and sugar. Beat in eggs, vanilla, and butter flavor. Make a paste of cocoa and food coloring and add it to the first mixture. Alternately add flour and buttermilk. Mix baking soda and vinegar in a small bowl; add to batter. Bake in three 9” or 10” pans for 20-25 minutes at 350o. Let cool completely before frosting. Frosting: 6 oz. cream cheese, softened 1 tsp. vanilla 6 Tbs. butter, softened 2 cups sifted powdered sugar Blend all ingredients until smooth. Serving Suggestions for Red Velvet Cake While the cake is perfectly delicious on its own (I personally think that this is the best Red Velvet I've ever tasted) I ended up having to make mine into red velvet cake truffles by dipping them into chocolate. Add a lollipop stick and you have some delicious cake pops.

During Columbia City’s early years, Washington struggled with the prohibition issue. Temperance advocates had begun their work back in the 1850s, when Washington was still a Territory. At that time, hard-line prohibitionists were closely aligned with other “radical” causes such as the abolition of slavery and women’s suffrage. Over the next half-century, the prohibition movement waxed and waned, becoming a complicated tangle of often contradictory strands including anti-immigrant sentiment, populist revolt, religious fervor, economic analysis, and an appeal to “respectable” middle-class values. While they weren’t fanatic anti-alcohol crusaders, Columbia’s founders definitely wanted a quiet, middle-class town for their children to grow up in, and their liquor policy reflected this goal. When Columbia incorporated in 1892, state law allowed local regulation of alcohol, though not prohibition, and one of the town Council’s first acts was “an ordinance fixing the amount to be paid for license to sell malt and spirituous liquors, wine, ale, etc., and providing the manner in which the same shall be issued.” The ordinance decreed that an application for a liquor license must include a $1000 bond and $500 in cash. This sounds like a lot of money in a town where entire lots went for $300, but it was a fairly standard license fee at the time, and such fees were often paid by brewers in return for an exclusive contract with a saloon. So the $500 fee alone would not have kept Columbia “dry.” An even greater hurdle was the requirement to submit a supporting petition “signed by a majority of the freeholders of the town.” Also, the establishment couldn’t be located within one block of a school or church – not an easy condition to meet in a town three blocks long, with a school on one side and a church on the other! Finally, the Council gave itself blanket discretion: “If upon consideration,” the ordinance goes on, “the Council shall deem it in the interest of the town to grant said petition and license, said license shall be issued…” but it “may be revoked or suspended at any time by the council for good cause, and the council shall be the sole judge as to the sufficiency of the cause...” Unsurprisingly, Columbia was able to boast in the 1899 City Directory that it had “Good Schools, Pure Water, [and] No Saloons” – and the town seems to have stayed saloon-free at least until it joined Seattle in 1907. This does not mean nobody was drinking, however. Columbia’s population included many German and Irish immigrants who – according to historians, not just stereotypes – often continued their traditional beer consumption at home. Other residents may well have enjoyed (perfectly legal) alcoholic beverages at home too. We may never know for sure just how much alcohol was consumed – legally or not – in those early days. We can speculate, however. One avenue for speculation involves a petition presented to the Town Council on May 1st, 1905: “We, the undersigned Mothers and Women residing in Columbia, hereby petition your Honorable Body to regulate the conduct and operation of the billiard and pool room operated on Rainier Avenue…” These 83 women wanted the pool room closed on Sundays and at 11 pm the rest of the week. The Council, at the urging of Councilman Hastings, directed the town attorney to draft an ordinance “regulating and controlling Billiard Halls and Pool Rooms. Also all places of lounging and loafing on Sundays.” Well, the loungers and loafers of Columbia City weren’t about to take this lying down. On May 18th the Council was presented with a petition signed by 90 residents of Columbia (all male, naturally) who “respectfully petition your Honorable Body not to pass an ORDINANCE as prayed for by a certain PETITION presented … at your last Meeting.” Councilmen Peirson and Raynor spoke in favor of this petition, and the Council promptly and quietly dropped the proposed ordinance. (Close inspection of the two petitions reveals that several of the women who signed the first petition were married to men who signed the second – one can only imagine their comments at the dinner table that night.) Again, we have no evidence of anyone selling or consuming spirituous beverages at the pool hall on Rainier – we are still firmly in the realm of speculation. The 1905 City Directory doesn’t list a pool room in Columbia, though there was a “pool hall & barber” in Hillman City. The pool – barber combo seems to have been a popular one back then – Lee Gardner and Menzo LaPorte owned such an establishment in Columbia from 1908 to 1923. It certainly sounds like a rather comfortable, decidedly masculine hang-out from which wives might well have had difficulty extracting their husbands of an evening – particularly if you imagine the lure of a drink or two. When Columbia was annexed to Seattle in 1907, it became part of a “wet” urban zone in an increasingly “dry” state – but this didn’t appear to have much of an effect on Columbia City. The prohibitionists continued to fight for a statewide liquor ban, gaining ground as they became more politically savvy. In 1914 Washingtonians approved a “dry” ballot resolution that took effect on January 1st, 1916. All over the city, liquor stores and saloons desperately sold out their inventory as the clocked ticked down, and in the wee hours of January 1st the police dutifully arrested a couple of Pioneer Square bar owners to mark the start of the dry era. Four years later the 18th Amendment was ratified, and Prohibition took effect nationwide. But Seattle’s “dry” years were anything but, and at least one Rainier Valley resident played a key role in that story. Tune in next month for more about bootlegging, “blind pigs” and the Rum King!

Thursday and Sunday was spaghetti day Rainier Valley’s Italian heritage goes back a hundred years or more. Back then, the Valley was largely forests and farms, with the streetcar running down the middle. Many of the area’s farmers were immigrants, and many of those immigrants were from Italy. In fact, the neighborhood around Atlantic Street was so heavily dominated by Italians that it was called “Garlic Gulch.” These Italian immigrants brought a rich culinary tradition to the Rainier Valley that can still be enjoyed today. The Borracchini family opened a bakery in the Italian neighborhood in 1922, and their son Remo, still operates it. Remo describes the neighborhood when he was a child: “Our church was Mt. Virgin church. We had several Italian grocery stores at Atlantic Street, Italian pharmacy, Italian barbershop. The residents were mainly east and west of Rainier Avenue going all the way up to Beacon Hill. As far south as – oh, a little south of McClellan Street. We had the ballpark. We had the Vacca Brothers farm. And we had the Italian language school here, at Atlantic Street.” Vincent LaSalle also grew up in Garlic Gulch. His family owned a grocery store and meat market on Atlantic Street. “On one side was the meat market. My uncle was a good butcher and they used to cut their own meat. They had this great big walk-in icebox. They had a sawdust floor. I remember in one corner of the icebox, they had a great big fifty-gallon barrel. And in that barrel was pickled pig feet. Oh, god! You never tasted anything like that. Everything used to taste so good!” Ralph Vacca, grandson of one of the original Vacca Brothers, says that in his family “Thursday and Sunday was spaghetti day. You could count on it. It may be mustaciolli one Thursday and it may be spaghettini on a Sunday. It may be bow ties and it may be something else. But always, always Thursday and Sunday, in our household. And I would venture to say that if you talked to some others, you’ll get a smile, if you say, ‘Thursday and Sunday was spaghetti day.’ It was always good. It certainly wasn’t Franco American in a can, that’s for damned sure.” Vincent Lasalle:  “Oh, when they used to make spaghetti and meatballs at my grandma’s place. My grandma would mix the meat -- a combination of pork meat and beef all chopped up, see -- and put garlic and different kinds of flavors in it. Salt and pepper. She’d mix it all up and then [her daughters] used to take it and roll it into little balls. You’d have a stack of meatballs this big and they’d put that in the tomato sauce. Oh god! I never tasted meatballs like that.”

Rainier Valley’s Italian heritage goes more than a hundred years. Back then, the Valley was largely forests and farms, with the streetcar running down the middle. Many of the area’s farmers were immigrants, and many of those immigrants were from Italy. In fact, the neighborhood around Atlantic Street was so heavily dominated by Italians that it was called “Garlic Gulch.” The Borracchini family opened a bakery in the Italian neighborhood in 1922, and their son Remo, still operates it. Remo describes the neighborhood when he was a child: “Our church was Mount Virgin church. We had several Italian grocery stores at Atlantic Street, Italian pharmacy, Italian barbershop. The residents were mainly east and west of Rainier Avenue going all the way up to Beacon Hill. As far south as – oh, a little south of McClellan Street. We had the ballpark. We had the Vacca Brothers farm. And we had the Italian language school here, at Atlantic Street.” Our Lady of Mount Virgin Catholic Church was the spiritual heart of the Italian community, watched over by Father Lodovico Caramello from 1913 to 1949. Mr. and Mrs. Mike Eronemo, pictured at left above with their attendants, were married at Mount Virgin in 1915, no doubt by Fr. Caramello himself. The bride and her maid of honor wear traditional Italian wedding garb. The happy couple celebrated their golden wedding anniversary in 1965 with a daughter, two sons, and five grandchildren. In 1940, Interstate 90 sliced through the heart of the Italian Community in North Rainier and tunneled through the Mount Baker neighborhood to reach Lake Washington and the first floating bridge. Garlic Gulch never fully recovered. Mount Virgin still stands today in the shadow of the I-90 lid.

RVHS Founder Buzz Anderson with KUOW radio host Steve Scher discuss Columbia City history on 1.26.2001

Katherin Albrecht (Albright) grave site, Comet Lodge Cemetery, circa 1970, Denis Law Collection, RVHS. Comet Lodge Cemetery is one of those stories that seems to constantly come back into the collective conscious, and then just as quickly as it came, it disappears again. Newspapers write about it, there’s presumably some outrage and then it disappears, once again. The cemetery’s first recorded burial is of 53 year old pioneer of the area, Samuel Maple (the gravestone spells it Mapel) who died in 1880. The next recorded burials would not be until 1884. The cemetery itself would not be named, or have any relation to Comet Lodge No. 139 of the I.O. O. F. (International Organization of Odd Fellows) until 1895. This is where the name Comet Lodge comes into the story, however most obituaries of people who were interred here state that it is the I.O.O.F. Cemetery-Georgetown. The cemetery hosts some well-known people of their time including Dr. Emma A. Rigby, Samuel Bevan who had been the Mayor of South Park, Henry Van Asselt, and Samuel and Jacob Maple some of the first settlers in Seattle. The cemetery hosts, 490 known graves, though there may be more since potter’s graveyard was moved somewhere in Georgetown in the 1920s and Comet Lodge has been considered a likely place. Most of these graves no longer have their markers, though most of the changes were made to the cemetery after the cemetery itself had been lost by Comet Lodge No. 139, there are some that were made before. In 1927, the first shrinking of the cemetery to its now 2.5 acre size began, with Dr. Corson and his wife selling a section called Babyland. This spot, that was for the burials of infants and small children, was without disinterment, turned into housing for people. The trend of lack of disinterment is a trend that continued. Once the cemetery closed in 1937, as the lodge had become bankrupt, there was only a handful of people who would disinter their family members as the organization had told them that they would now be in charge of caring for the plots. The graves of the Maples, and Henry Van Asselt were moved to different resting spots (the Maples to King County International Airport, Van Asselt to Lakeview Cemetery). Out of the mentioned 490 graves, only 25 of them would end up being moved, the other 465, have no records of being moved. Once the cemetery was foreclosed upon however, it fell completely into disrepair and became a popular spot for sneaking into and, supposedly stealing gravestones, as people assumed everyone who had been buried had been disinterred. There were several attempts at cleaning up the cemetery or rehabilitating it, however most of them fell through. The two of the biggest attempts came in 1987 and 1999. Neither were successful for various reasons. In 2002, Cleveland High School students with the Washington State Cemetery Association and a grant from 4Culture worked on a project. This project, in the words of the project itself “would teach research techniques and assign specific informational components of the history of the cemetery and the neighborhood to students or small groups of students. The project also encouraged students to develop a community plan to maintain the cemetery grounds. By educating students, it was the hope of WSCA to develop an appreciation for historical sites in the community and to deter the destruction of cemeteries by young adults.” This was the last attempt at any type of clean up or preservation at Comet Lodge Cemetery. Some time between these clean up attempts most of the gravestones were moved to new positions. Based on a 1976 map, 24 out of 25 remaining gravestones have become cenotaphs, stones that no longer mark the spot of the actual burial. Erwin Rigby, member of the Woodmen of the World, tree trunk grave dated 1907. Photo by Karen O’Brien From death dates and birthdates, to how people viewed those who had passed on or something about the deceased themselves, gravestones can give an astounding amount of historical information, and graves at Comet Lodge Cemetery are no different. The cenotaphs of Augustus Twombly (d. 1901) and Erwin Rigby (d.1907) are both tree trunk graves. These graves tend to be about a life cut short, and these stones were common in some areas, easily bought from a Sears & Roebuck catalogue. For both of them however, it also means they were a member of the Woodmen of the World, a fraternity organization that disbursed insurance and would purchase stones for their members.These stones are usually easy to spot for membership. The top knot above the name will have the symbol of the Woodmen of the World (Now Modern Woodmen of America) two crossed hatchets. Other cenotaphs in the cemetery also tell stories of those who had lived there in the past. Ernst Pique, a German immigrant has a particularly ornate stone, designed with floral motifs talking highly of him throuugh ivy, ferns, the backside of his stone also has an engraving written in German. This year we had our first (two!) tours at Comet Lodge where we shared the history of the cemetery, stories of some who were buried there, and discussed the gravestone art. It was a success with two sold out tours with 30 people all together, and I can’t wait to do the tour again next year. RVHS Program and Archives Manager, Katharine Anthony leading a tour at Comet Lodge Cemetery, Nov. 2nd 2019. Photo by Karen O’Brien.

Before the Seattle Mariners, there were the Seattle Rainiers who are playing for the pennant in this story that shows how baseball unites diverse communities. Tour the Seattle of 1955 with Huey as he and his neighborhood cheer for the Seattle Rainiers. If only Huey can find his missing ticket to the game! This nostalgic and historical picture book follows Huey through South Seattle as he retraces his steps through the charming neighborhood surrounding Sick’s Stadium to find his lost ticket--and follows him through the big game to victory. Neighbors from all different backgrounds listen to the game, announced by the beloved Leo Lassen, as Huey visits locally owned shops like the Italian bakery and the Japanese fish market. Featuring the vibrant retro illustrations by Larry Gets Lost series creator John Skewes, Ticket to the Pennant celebrates diversity and will be cherished by baseball fans young and old.