Record Group 160
PARK SYSTEM
ADMINISTRATIVE HISTORY
After twenty-five years (1972-1997) of organizational placement as a subordinate unit within several county planning and resource departments, King County park programs resumed autonomy in 1997 as the Parks and Recreation Department. Subsequently renamed the King County Park System, the agency encompassed three principal functional areas: administration; the Maintenance and Facilities Division; and the Recreation, Aquatics and Fairgrounds Division. An administrative section, the Program Development and Land Management Section (PDLM), experienced notable growth after 1997, reflecting the Park System's goal of establishing itself as a key steward of natural resource lands and wildlife habitat through the acquisition, preservation and management of forests, farmland, wetlands and natural areas in King County. As of 2002, the Park System became a division within the newly reorganized Department of Natural Resources and Parks.
SERIES DESCRIPTIONS
(click on series title to see container list)
160-467 Photograph files, 1948 - 1998 (150 KB, PDF)
The King County Parks System photograph collection visually documents park and recreation facilities and programs in King County from 1948 to 1998. The collection's seven subseries reflect the activities of King County Parks across this time period: (1) Park sites and facilities (including former and proposed county parks, and municipal parks located within King County); (2) regional trails; (3) swimming pools; (4) recreation programs; (5) major local or regional events sponsored by King County Parks (including Junior Olympics, Washington Games for Disabled Youth, Marymoor Heritage Festival, the Return to Newcastle, and the King County Fair); (6) administrative and staff photographs; and (7) photographs of miscellaneous subjects. Photographic formats include black-and-white prints and negatives, color prints and negatives, 35mm color slides, and glass slides (color and black-and-white). Specific topics prominently represented by images include: 1950s recreation programs for women, girls and disabled youth; facilities and programs developed in partnership with local school districts (1950s-1970s); facilities, particularly swimming pools, developed through the Forward Thrust capital improvement program (1968); recreation and leisure programs in the 1990s; and the development of regional parks and trails (1970s-1990s). Aerial photographs, mostly from c.1969-1975, are present for many park sites and their adjacent neighborhoods. Arrangement within each subseries is alphabetical by name of park, facility, event, or type of recreational program; administrative photographs are arranged chronologically. Images have not generally been described individually; many images may also be protected by copyright. The photograph files were originally located within King County Parks' history files but were separated from that series (Series 468) because of the formats of their record material. Also separated from the history files were oral history audiotapes and transcripts (Series 50). For pre-1948 images of King County park facilities and structures, see Series 400, Public Works Photograph Files.Volume: 8.33 cu ft 160-468 History files, 1949 - 1997
From its establishment as an independent department in 1948, the King County parks system maintained files documenting its administrative and program history. By 1998, the history files consisted of three components: oral histories of prominent staff members , photographs, and text files. The oral histories (series 50) and photographs (series 467) were processed separately due to the audio and visual formats of the record material. This series consists of the remaining textual records. They include: agency and program histories; brochures, posters, graphics, programs and other ephemera; manuscripts, and photocopied newspaper clippings. The career of master wood carver Dudley Carter is represented by a small amount of correspondence, several related photographs, and a videotape. Other major topics include swimming pools and parks built or developed as a result of the Forward Thrust capital improvement program (1968); and construction of a suspension footbridge at Tolt River-John MacDonald Park in Carnation as a U.S. Bicentennial project (1975-1976). Records are arranged alphabetically by broad topic and then alphabetically by subtopic. Volume: 1 cu ft
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