In the 1970s, Seattle's growth brought diversity and the need for disability support. Evergreen Goodwill of Northwest Washington assisted those facing economic and educational challenges. Like today, we offered free job training classes including cashiering, graphic arts, electronics, and banking, along with GED guidance, resume help, interviews, and English classes for non-native speakers. 

In the early 1960s the Seattle Lane Street headquarters and flagship store underwent significant expansion that provided more work and retail space. See what else influenced changes in the 1960s.

In 1953, the organization’s flagship store location was substantially expanded into the iconic store that remains today at 1400 South Lane Street in Seattle. This store continues to be the largest Goodwill thrift store in the world.

Evergreen Goodwill's history through the 1940s was marked by two distinct milestones that included being a great support during the wartime effort and a major fire that destroyed the organization's main warehouse and headquarters building, opening the doors to a modern beginning. 

An era marked by the Great Depression also represented an important opportunity for Evergreen Goodwill to provide support for those in need at its newly-developed headquarters facility.

Evergreen Goodwill is celebrating 100 years of existence throughout 2023! Over the next 10 months, we'll highlight a different decade of our organization's history and the evolution of Evergreen Goodwill's Mission and community impact, starting where it all began – at the corner of Seattle's Boren Avenue & Virginia Street in 1923. 

At Seattle Goodwill, we deeply value sustainability. We partner with local organization and programs like Threadcycle and eCycle Washington to ensure donations we can’t sell are properly recycled. We use SmartBins and have a LEED Gold Certified Administrative Services building. Last year, thanks to generous donors and shoppers, we kept over 53 million pounds out of landfills.