During World War II, the King County War Finance Committee's Victory Square in downtown Seattle was a gathering place and symbol of Seattle's war efforts. After the war, Mayor William F. Devin (1898-1982) established a War Memorial Committee who oversaw design and construction of a memorial plaza that was built as part of the new Public Safety Building. The building housed the Seattle Public Health Department and the administrative headquarters of the Seattle Police Department, and was located across the street from City Hall, at Fourth Avenue and Cherry Street.
The program pictured here is from the dedication of Memorial Plaza on January 7, 1951. The memorial plaza featured a granite slab containing the names of the 2,488 Washington state citizens who were casualties of World War II. In 2005 the building and plaza were demolished and the granite memorial slabs were crushed to prevent them from being reused. The city services were moved to a new Civic Center building complex between Third and Fifth Avenues. The complex contains a new and expanded memorial, the Garden of Remembrance, an official state memorial to more than 8,000 Washington state citizens who have given their lives in service since 1941.
Caption information source: http://pcad.lib.washington.edu/building/5177 Caption information source: "Garden Pays Tribute to Casualties of War - Ceremony Today to Dedicate New Shrine," The Seattle Times, July 4, 1998, p. A6.
Physical Description: 1 folded program ; 6 x 9.25 in.
Additional Information: Digital copy of this item available thanks to funding from a 2016 Institute for Museum and Library Services grant. Metadata updated as part of a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services administered by the Library Services and Technology Act, through the Washington State Library, a division of the Office of the Secretary of State.
