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Higher education facilities in Seattle include the University of Washington, Cornish College of the Arts, Griffin College, Seattle Pacific University, Seattle University, Bastyr University, and an extensive community college system.

In the west central part of the city is the Seattle Center, located on the site of the Century 21 Exposition, a 1962 world’s fair that drew 9.5 million visitors. Cultural arenas in Seattle Center are the Opera House, home of the Seattle Opera Association, the Pacific Northwest Ballet, and the Seattle Symphony Orchestra. Also at Seattle Center are the Bagley Wright Theatre, home of the Seattle Repertory Theatre Company; the Seattle Center Playhouse, home of the Intiman Theatre Company; the Charlotte Martin Theatre, home of the Seattle Children’s Theatre; the Pacific Science Center; the Seattle Children’s Museum; and the Space Needle 607 feet high, with a revolving restaurant and observation deck providing panoramic views of the area. A monorail train connects Seattle Center with the downtown area. Seattle supports many professional, semi-professional, and fringe theater companies, among them A Contemporary Theatre, the restored 5th Avenue Theatre, and the Empty Space Theatre.

Seattle’s International District is the location of the Wing Luke Memorial Museum and the Nippon Kan Theatre, a national historic landmark. Farther to the northeast are three of the city’s major museums—the Museum of History and Industry; the Henry Art Gallery, with historical and contemporary art and the state’s oldest public museum; and the Thomas Burke Memorial Washington State Museum, which features exhibits about Native Americans of the region. Other Seattle museums are the Nordic Heritage Museum and the Museum of Flight. The Seattle Art Museum displays collections of African and Northwest Native American art; its original museum, in Volunteer Park, is now a center for Asian art.

The city also supports a zoo and aquarium, and many city parks. The 535 acre Discovery Park, the city’s largest, is the site of the Daybreak Star Indian Cultural Education Center. The University of Washington Arboretum contains trees and shrubs from around the world, a Japanese garden, and wetlands.

Native Americans, including the Snohomish and the Suquamish, lived in the area before Seattle was founded. In 1852 a white settlement, established the previous year at Alki Point, was moved to the present-day site of downtown Seattle; the city was named for Suquamish leader Chief Sealth. A sawmill was constructed at Seattle in 1853, and exploitation of the rich local timber resources began. Seattle was incorporated as a city in 1869. Chinese workers began to arrive in the 1860s, and by the mid-1880s their population exceeded 500. Fears that cheap immigrant labor would cost whites their jobs resulted in anti-Chinese riots, and many Chinese were driven from town. A fire leveled the old downtown on June 6, 1889, but the area was reconstructed, and Pioneer Square still contains many buildings from this period. Seattle served as a gateway to, and a supply center for, the Yukon and Alaska gold rushes of the 1890s, and its population swelled from 37,000 in 1889 to 237,000 in 1910. Four transcontinental railroads served the city by 1910, and trade was further stimulated by the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914 and the Lake Washington Ship Canal a few years later. By this time Seattle had a diverse population. A large Scandinavian community was centered in the fisheries-oriented Ballard area, and many people of Japanese and Chinese descent worked in the agricultural lands of the Duwamish and Green river valleys.