Victor Steinbrueck was born in 1911 in Mandan, North Dakota and moved with his family to Washington in 1914. Steinbrueck attended the University of Washington, earning a Bachelor of Architecture degree in 1935. He joined the faculty at the University of Washington in 1946 and taught until his retirement in 1976. He was the author of Seattle Cityscape (1962), Seattle Cityscape II (1973) and a collections of his drawings, Market Sketchbook (1968).
Victor Steinbrueck was Seattle's best known advocate of historic preservation. He led the battle against the city's redevelopment plans for the Pike Place Market in the 1960s. In 1959, the City of Seattle, together with the Central Association of Seattle, formulated plans to obtain a Housing and Urban Development (HUD) urban renewal grant to tear down the Market and everything else between First and Western, from Union to Lenora, in order to build a high rise residential, commercial and hotel complex. In response to these plans a group of supporters of the market and members of Allied Arts of Seattle, led by Victor Steinbrueck, formed Friends of the Market in 1964. Their efforts culminated in 1971 with a successful ballot initiative, the "People's Initiative," which established a seven-acre historic district around the market and a historical commission to oversee it, and thus saved the Market from demolition. Steinbrueck also helped lead the campaign in the 1960s that culminated in City Council passage of an ordinance which established the Pioneer Square Historic Preservation District.
In 1972 Steinbrueck was appointed to the Citizens Action Force (Citizen's Stadium Task Force) which was concerned with the impact of the proposed King Street stadium on the surrounding area. He became disillusioned and resigned from the group on August 29, 1972. He joined the Citizens Coalition For the Domed Stadium in a petition drive to put a stadium initiative on the ballot.
For many years Steinbrueck fought the city over its Westlake Mall development plans. The project, initially conceived as a park in the area surrounding the Westlake Monorail terminal in Seattle's central business district, went through numerous plans incorporating, at various times, an office tower, luxury hotel, art museum and retail space. After Charles Royer took office as Mayor and proposed a new version of the Westlake project in 1978, Steinbrueck became the most vocal critic of the plan and a spokesman for Committee for Alternatives at Westlake. In the fall of 1984, City Attorney Doug Jewett achieved an agreement among Steinbrueck, other opponents of the project, and the developers, which incorporated Steinbrueck's ideas for more open public space in the development.
Steinbrueck was also spokesman for the Downtown Neighborhood Alliance, a group which opposed Cornerstone Development's Waterfront Project, proposed for First Avenue in 1980. He also was involved with numerous small projects and controversies regarding public spaces and historic sites.
Steinbrueck died in 1985. After his death, Pike Place Park was named Victor Steinbrueck Park in his memory.
Hoovervilles were shack towns that sprang up around the United States during the Great Depression in response to the societal failure to alleviate growing homelessness. They were named after President Herbert Hoover's ineffective attempts to address the economic crisis. In Seattle, organized charity was of low quality, consisting of one meal a day of no nutritional value and a damp section of ground to sleep on. The construction of Hoovervilles showed a desire for self-sufficiency in the face of poor quality charity. Seattle had eight Hoovervilles, the largest of which was on a nine acre tract of vacant property on the Eliot Bay waterfront near Pioneer Square. Homelessness and shack towns near Pioneer Square - from the tide flats to the urban core near Yesler Way - had existed since the early 1900s, but the Hooverville shacks were first put up in 1931. Seattle initially resisted the construction of the shack town, burning it to the ground twice and attempting to evict the residents. After the second burning, the residents rebuilt again, this time putting tin and steel roofs on their shacks. The city relented and agreed the Hooverville could stay as long as the shack town adhered to safety and sanitation rules, including that no women or children could reside within. The Hooverville gained a sense of political legitimacy and had a board of commissioners and an unofficial mayor, Jesse Jackson. By 1935, the Seattle Hoovervilles had an address system, a rudimentary postal service, and basic self-policing. The city Health Department estimated in 1935 that 4,000 to 5,000 men were living in the various shack towns in the city. Despite having some influence in the city, the situation of the residents was still insecure, temporary, and men rarely found work. The waterfront Hooverville lasted until it was destroyed in 1941.
Photographs and sketches of the Seattle Hooverville area.
The sketchbook is fragile, with pages becoming detached.
Entire collection can be viewed on the Libraries Digital Collections website. Permission of Visual Materials Curator is required to view originals. Contact University of Washington Libraries Special Collections for more information.
The sketchbook is fragile, with pages becoming detached.
Creator's copyrights transferred to the University of Washington Libraries Special Collections.
Donor: Victor Steinbrueck, June 7, 1967.
Processed by Molly Bishop, March 2017; Sara Cordes, 2018; Ruth Bacharach, 2019.
Relocated from the Seattle Subject file, 2017 and 2020.
Song: "OH, MY BELLY IS JUST ACHIN'/ FOR A COUPLE STRIPS OF BACON,/ A HUNK OF PORK, ALSO A LITTLE POT OF BREW,/ I'M TIRED OF THE SCENERY,/ JUST LEAD ME TO A BEANERY,/ WHERE THERE'S SOMETHING MORE THAN AIR TO CHEW." CHURCHES: ST. JAMES, St. JOSEPH: ARCHES - ALTAR, - CROSS. BOATS (DRY DOCK - FISHING - STEAMER - FISHERMAN -PROW & REFLECTION. BRIDGES; BUILDING - 1ST AND CHERRY; LOAFERS - LIBRARY -COURTHOUSE; MILL".
"Sketch Book - Victor Steinbrueck, 1933, University of Wash.[ington], School of Architecture, Mainly "Hoovervilles", Hoovervilles were the villages of homes of the 'homeless' men caused by the Great Depression. There were several in Seattle.. - several Hoovervilles, that is,"
Written on drawing: Shanty Madonna - Summer 1933.
Written on drawing: Jungle Palace - Summer 1933.
Written on drawing: Shantytown - 1933 - Summer.
Written on drawing: Metal house - Summer 1933.
Written on drawing: Summer - 1933.
Written on drawing: Hooverville - Summer 1933.
Written on drawing, Summer 1933.
Written on drawing: Summer 1933.
Identified and dated by artist.
Written on sketch: Summer 1933. "Grahn" added to sketch.
Written on drawing: Summer 1933.
Written on sketch: Summer 1933.
Written on sketch ; Above the Clouds". List of colors along left hand side indicate where they should be used.
Identified by artist.
Identified by artist as St. Joseph's.
Artist's notes indicate which colors to use.
Artist's notation: Jim Fitzgerald.
Images are contact prints on strips with three or four to a strip.
Written on verso: Main Street at about 9th, Yesler Terrace A[illeg].
Written on verso: Main Street at about 9th, Yesler Terrace A[illeg].
Written on verso: Main Street at about 9th, Yesler Terrace A[illeg].