Historic American Buildings Survey No. WA-201 (Longacres Park) Collection, 1992-1993

In March, 1933, House Bill 59, which legalized a form of racetrack gambling, was passed in Washington. Seattle businessman Vinson Joseph Gottstein lost no time in forming the Washington Jockey Club. The new club needed a racetrack in a hurry, and Longacres Park was built in just 28 days. It opened on August 3, 1933, to a crowd of 11,000.

Longacres was designed by Seattle architect B. Marcus Priteca (famous for his theater designs). Priteca continued to supervise additions to the racetrack facilities into the 1960s, and after his death, his close associate, Richard McCann, was the chief architect for Longacres Park.

Longacres was owned by several generations of the Gottstein-Alhadeff family of Seattle. Joseph Gottstein brought technological innovations to the track and was a strong supporter of the Washington Thoroughbred Breeders Association. Gottstein's son-in-law, Morris Alhadeff, was involved with the racetrack from the 1950s, and Alhadeff and his sons continued to make additions to the facilities after Gottstein's 1971 death.

In 1990, the Alhadeffs sold Longacres to the Boeing Company. The Emerald Racing Association arranged with Boeing to hold two more seasons of racing at the track. After the final season in 1992, Boeing began redeveloping the site, planning to build offices and other facilities and landscape the park. When these photographs were made in 1992 and 1993, Boeing had just begun its redevelopment of the site.

During its nearly sixty years of existence, Longacres became a racetrack of national renown. National records were set at the course, and many well-known trainers, jockeys, and horses were associated with Longacres. Among the top horses who competed at Longacres were Sparrow Castle, the first horse to win nine Longacres stakes races; Dark Damsel, "the fastest filly ever to run at Longacres"; Turbulator, who set a world record for 6 1/2 furlongs in 1970; and Chinook Pass, voted the nation's top sprinter in 1983. Prestigious trainers included Hall-of-Famer Charlie Whittingham; Ruth Parton (at one time the only licensed woman trainer in the country); Kathy Walsh, Longacres' first award-winning woman trainer; and Ben Harris, who set the record for number of wins in a single season in 1991. Among the record-holding jockeys who competed at Longacres in the early years were Johnny Longden, Eddie Arcaro, Doug Dodson, Ralph Neves, and Joe Baze. Famous jockeys during the Alhadeff years included Vicky Aragon, Gary Stevens, and Gary Baze.