Office of Urban Conservation Subject Files, 1974-2006

The Office of Urban Conservation was created in 1975 as part of the Department of Community Development (DCD). It was founded in an era of citizen protests against a proposed urban renewal program that would have demolished Pioneer Square and Pike Place Market. The office's mandate was to coordinate Seattle's historic preservation programs and administer the city's landmark boards and historic districts. When DCD was abolished in 1992, the office became the Historic Preservation Program in the Department of Neighborhoods.

Records include correspondence, memos, legal documents, and other materials documenting the projects and concerns of the Office of Urban Conservation. A large portion of the materials address the controversy over what to do with Fort Lawton. The Parks Department and open-space advocates wanted to demolish the buildings left from the army fort, while preservationists wished to save at least some of them. Planning and negotiation about what became Discovery Park went on for years, finally resulting in the preservation of the most significant buildings.

Another topic addressed in some depth is the preservation of historic religious properties. The city tried to declare both First Covenant Church and First United Methodist Church as historic landmarks, but the churches fought the designations in court on constitutional grounds and won. There is a great deal of documentation of these two cases, as well as material from other relevant cases around the country, documentation of historic religious properties in the city, and files relating to a Seattle conference on religious properties.

Another sizeable portion of the records is devoted to work the City and the OUC did with the Seattle School District on capital improvements during the 1990s. Materials document the capital improvement program in general as well as work on individual schools.

Other subjects documented in the collection include historic theatres, siting for the Mariners stadium, the Frederick & Nelson site, preservation surveys, the downtown plan, Seattle Commons, and Preservation Week activities.