The news officially came out last week in The Seattle Times. The Boeing Company is set to demolish the centerpiece of its own World War II history – Plant 2 on East Marginal Way.
How could this happen here – in the city where Boeing was born, where the fabled B-17 Flying Fortresses were built, and where 30,000 Seattle workers labored day and night in support of America’s war effort? Surely, this factory embodies one of the most amazing and significant national stories in World War II.
Take a look at what the Bay Area is doing to honor its wartime heritage – especially at the Rosie the Riveter – World War II Home Front National Historical Park in Richmond, CA. Not every base, shipyard, or factory’s being saved, but Bay Area folks are clearly keyed in on the incredibly important role played by their home front industries.
How is it that there hasn’t really been an open conversation in this community about the threat and the opportunity for preserving Plant 2 – this iconic Seattle site? True, it’s a giant white elephant, and true, the site is horribly polluted. But beauty and cleanliness aren’t exactly criteria for significance in history. And once the site’s redeveloped, the tangible power of the place is gone.
How Plant 2 managed never to be designated as historic, even at the local level (the Hanford Nuclear Site’s B Reactor is now a protected National Historic Landmark) makes one wonder. A Boeing spokesman notes in The Seattle Times article that he doesn’t anticipate the plant’s history will pose any obstacles to the company’s plans to demolish. So presumably, Boeing did work its way through all the mandated cultural resource compliance reviews at the local, state, and national level. Again – how could this happen here?
© The Boeing Company
