Serving Queen Anne & Magnolia Since 1919 SEPTEMBER 9, 2026
www.QueenAnneNews.com
VOL. 107, NO. 37
Twenty-five years later, Seattle remembers
At Seattle Center, a city that once gathered in grief will gather again to honor the lives lost on Sept. 11. Twenty-five years after thousands of Seattle residents carried flowers to the International Fountain in grief, the city will return to Seattle Center this week to remember the lives lost on Sept. 11, 2001. Seattle Center will hold a free 25thanniversary remembrance ceremony at noon Friday, Sept. 11, on the South Fountain Lawn. The gathering will take place just steps from where one of Seattle’s most extraordinary spontaneous memorials unfolded in the days after the terrorist attacks. The attacks happened nearly 3,000 miles away, but their effects were felt immediately. Seattle was still waking up when the first plane struck the World Trade Center’s north tower at 5:46 a.m. Pacific time. By about 6:30 a.m., Seattle police were sending officers to the Space Needle and downtown skyscrapers. At 6:42 a.m., the sun rose over Seattle. Three minutes later, the city activated its Emergency Operations Center. The Space Needle, one of the city’s most recognizable landmarks, was evacuated and closed at about 7 a.m. Its management said there had been no specific threat, but Seattle Center security officers and police guarded the structure, vehicle entrances were blocked and crews swept the building for suspicious packages. Nothing was found. Across the city, uncertainty reshaped an otherwise ordinary Tuesday. Seattle Public Schools remained open, but Columbia Tower, Pacific Science Center, Seattle Art
Museum and numerous businesses and office buildings closed or restricted access. Air traffic stopped at Sea-Tac along with flights nationwide. For some Queen Anne and Magnolia families, the events in New York were intensely personal. In Queen Anne & Magnolia News coverage published in the aftermath of the attacks, Queen Anne resident Joyce Rice
recalled being awakened at 6:30 that morning by her son Andy, who was working in Manhattan about 30 to 40 blocks from the World Trade Center. He told her to “get on the TV.” Andy watched the towers fall before joining the streams of people trying to leave Manhattan. In an email later shared with his mother and this newspaper, he described crowded streets, long lines for pay phones
and a strange sense of connection among strangers who all knew they were experiencing the same catastrophe. Another neighborhood family narrowly escaped a far different connection to the attacks. Lynn and Bob Lucurell, who grew up in Magnolia and maintained a home on Perkins Lane, managed Adjusters International’s New York operation. The company had spent 3½ years in the World Trade Center before moving its office to Midtown Manhattan on Aug. 21, 2001 — just three weeks before the attacks. The Lucurells happened to be traveling in Chicago on Sept. 11. Back in Magnolia, Lynn’s mother, Mildred Dowling, received calls and visits from friends who still believed her daughter and son-in-law worked in the towers. One friend arrived at her home and embraced her, believing she had lost her daughter. The Lucurells soon returned to New York, where their insurance-adjusting work put them close to the enormous losses left behind. Queen Anne residents Jackie and David Brooks had their own frightening wait. Their son, Arthur Brooks, then an economics professor at Syracuse University, had taken a train into New York City that morning. His mother told this newspaper that he encountered the unfolding attacks as he entered Manhattan and eventually paid $1,000 for a
REMEMBRANCE, 4
Mariners honor 2001 team—and a moment bigger than baseball
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a large American flag onto the field. Players gathered around it, knelt in prayer and observed a moment of silence with the crowd. McLemore eventually took the flag and began carrying it around the bases, with his teammates following. When they reached home plate, McLemore and Cameron lifted it above their heads. That moment—part celebration, part remembrance—now stands in bronze. The actual flag from Sept. 19, 2001 is also preserved, framed and displayed in Legacy Plaza. A wall behind the sculpture holds 116 bats, matching the Mariners’ record-setting win total from 2001. Nearby, 2,269 baseballshaped medallions carry messages personalized by fans. Together, the installations generated more than $300,000 for Mariners programs supporting youth baseball and softball facilities around Washington, according to the club. At Thursday’s dedication, longtime Mariners broadcaster Rick Rizzs served as master of ceremonies, joined by Cameron, McLemore, first responders and other invited guests. Mariners Chairman and Managing Partner John Stanton connected the memorial’s past to the children who will benefit from it. “Many of the players that will play on these fields were not alive during 9/11,” Stanton said. “But they will learn about the values that our nation carries forward.” He continued: “We remember those who were lost. We honor those who served. And we celebrate the team who brought us joy.” Stanton said he hopes everyone who passes the statue will be reminded “not only of the great baseball season, but the resilience of our community and our nation.”
LAURA MARIE RIVERA
wenty-five years later, one of the greatest seasons in baseball history is being remembered with something more important than a win total. Last Thursday, the team unveiled Legacy Plaza at T-Mobile Park, centered around a new bronze statue of Mike Cameron and Mark McLemore holding an American flag aloft. The image captures the closing Laura moments of Marie the Mariners’ Rivera Sept. 19, 2001 game — eight days after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 and on the night Seattle clinched the American League West. The 2001 Mariners were extraordinary by almost any measure. They finished the regular season 116–46, tying the majorleague record for wins. Ichiro Suzuki arrived from Japan and won both American League Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player. Eight Mariners were selected to the All-Star team, and Seattle dominated its division. But the moment memorialized in bronze was not a home run, a strikeout or even the jubilant celebration one might expect after clinching a division title. Major League Baseball had suspended play for a week after 9/11. Seattle’s first home game after the attacks came Sept. 18 at what was then Safeco Field. The following night, during their game against the Anaheim Angels, players learned that Texas had defeated Oakland, guaranteeing the Mariners the AL West title. After Seattle completed a shutout victory, the celebration took an unexpected turn. Longtime Mariners video coordinator and Marine veteran Carl Hamilton had brought
Mariners broadcaster Rick Rizzs speaks during the Sept. 3 dedication of Legacy Plaza at T-Mobile Park, where a new statue honors the 2001 Mariners and their Sept. 19 post-9/11 flag tribute. Turning a moment into bronze Among those watching the dedication was Lou Cella, the sculptor who transformed the photograph and memories of that September night into the new monument. Cella, an artist with Rotblatt Amrany Fine Art Studio, is already familiar to Mariners fans even if they may not know his name. He has created several of the bronze figures around the ballpark, including statues honoring Dave Niehaus, Ken Griffey Jr., Edgar Martinez and Ichiro Suzuki.
For Cella, each commission begins with research. “Anything baseball, I love to do it,” he said at the dedication, describing the pleasure of “digging into the history of these events.” This project, however, carried a different weight. “This is my first 9/11 monument,” Cella said. “It’s ironic that it combines baseball.
LEGACY, 4