Rainier Valley Historical Society Hosts Open House During BeatWalk

The Rainier Val­ley His­tor­i­cal Soci­ety hosts a rare Open House this Fri­day evening, Novem­ber 7th between 6:00 – 9:00 p.m., dur­ing Colum­bia City’s monthly Beat­Walk event. Check out the RVHS’s new win­dow dis­play hon­or­ing politi­cians with Rainier Val­ley roots.

From Direc­tor Mikala Woodward’s arti­cle, “The Rainier Valley’s diverse polit­i­cal roots run deep”:

The 37th Dis­trict has pro­duced many firsts — the first African Amer­i­can in the State House (Charles Stokes), State Sen­ate (George Flem­ing), and Seat­tle City Coun­cil (Sam Smith). Albert Rosellini was the first Ital­ian Amer­i­can gov­er­nor west of the Mis­sis­sippi, break­ing through the Catholic bar­rier four years before John F. Kennedy was elected Pres­i­dent. Gary Locke was the first Asian gov­er­nor on the main­land, and the only Chi­nese Amer­i­can gov­er­nor the United States has seen so far.

Let’s not for­get Norm Rice, Ruby Chow or John L. O’Brien, the first State Rep with 52 years of ser­vice in the U.S.

Don’t miss the oppor­tu­nity! I’d never vis­ited the RVHS because it typ­i­cally is open for vis­i­tors only every Wednes­day — Fri­day from 10:00 a.m. to 1 p.m., or by appointment.

[Update: Appar­ently, when you cre­ate a dis­play of pio­neer­ing Rainier Val­ley politi­cians, Rainier Val­ley dig­ni­taries drop by to see it! Plus remark­able video of a self-waving flag. You read that right. Mikala tells all in Feel­ing Patri­otic Yet?]

The Rainier Val­ley His­tor­i­cal Soci­ety col­lects, pre­serves, exhibits, and inter­prets the his­tory and her­itage of Rainier Val­ley and its peo­ple, and pro­motes pub­lic involve­ment in and appre­ci­a­tion of its his­tory and culture.

The His­tor­i­cal Soci­ety main­tains an exten­sive archival col­lec­tion of over 1,500 pho­tographs of his­toric Rainier Val­ley, as well as news­pa­per clip­pings, maps, let­ters, arti­facts, and doc­u­ments depict­ing the Valley’s devel­op­ment since 1853. The His­tor­i­cal Soci­ety is a won­der­ful resource for edu­ca­tors, his­to­ri­ans, stu­dents, and any­one inter­ested in the her­itage of the Rainier Valley.

Rainier Val­ley His­tor­i­cal Soci­ety | 3710 S Fer­di­nand St 98118, (206) 722‑2838, rvh­sof­fice

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(Pho­tos by Colum­bia City Blog, avail­able under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike Cre­ative Com­mons license)

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