Museum Of History And Industry aka: MOHAI

I’ve been enjoying renewed civic pride lately as 43 Places helps me to remember the places I love in Seattle and discover all sorts of new ones. So my visit to this museum was well-timed…except that I only had about an hour to spend there on Saturday. Luckily, it’s a pretty small place. It’s comprised of a handful of rooms dedicated to slices of Seattle history: the fishing industry, the great Seattle fire, the effects of the Klondike gold rush (during which, within two decades around the turn of the 20th century, Seattle grew from a town of 40,000 to a city of over 200,000). The museum is more of the standard historical variety than the quirky collection of artifacts I’d imagined (neither the giant Rainier R nor the blue neon flame were in their collection as rumored), but I’d still like to go back sometime and peruse their exhibits with less haste and greater focus on, watchacallit, learning. The modern/commercial part featured a sign apologizing for some sort of re-organization, so it’s possible that the funky part of the museum – the part I went to see – was on partial display temporarily.

If you’d like to get a feel for the space before paying the entrance fee ($7), there are several VR shots of the museum available too.

I’d never even heard of this museum until the other night, and I’m very intrigued. I understand it holds the giant red R from the old Rainier Brewery as well the blue, vulva-shaped neon flame (from atop some natural gas company, as I recall) that used to shine over Seattle. Just based on their having acquired those two relics, I think it’ll be an interesting place to explore.