Empire Way’s route was first laid out in 1913, as a state highway heading southeast out of Seattle. It was named for James J. Hill, the head of the Great Northern Railway, who was nicknamed the “Empire Builder.” At first, Empire Way was put together from parts of older roads on the same route. From the 1930s to the 1950s, Empire Way was expanded as the Rainier Valley neighborhood grew more densely populated primarily by Asian and Black families when the discriminatory housing practice known as “redlining” excluded them from neighborhoods in the west and north of Seattle. Before I-5 was constructed in the 1960s, Empire Way served as a road for traffic to bypass downtown Seattle. In 1982, Empire Way was renamed Martin Luther King Jr. Way after the civil rights leader. In the 2000s, a light rail line was laid down along MLK Way at street level in order to connect SeaTac airport to Downtown. Construction on the line completely rebuilt the street through Rainier Valley, changing the community by disrupting life and displacing many residents and businesses with new developments.
This image shows construction on an extension to Empire Way, expanding the road north to Dearborn Street. The intersection seen near the bottom is Empire Way and Rainier Avenue. Sick’s Stadium, the home of Seattle’s minor league baseball team the Rainiers from 1938 to 1976, is visible in the center. The Rainiers were owned by Emil Sick, who also owned the Rainier brewery at that time.
Caption information source: “North Rainier Valley Historic Context Statement,” by Caroline Tobin, City of Seattle Department of Neighborhoods, May 2004, retrieved from https://www.seattle.gov/Documents/Departments/Neighborhoods/HistoricPreservation/HistoricResourcesSurvey/context-north-rainier.pdf. Caption information source: “First Section of Arterial,” photo by Harvey Davis, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, July 15, 1953, page 12.
