50 years ago in Expo history: Construction next to the fair? The governor was so outraged by the prospect that he considered a ‘rash action’

Washington Gov. Dan Evans sparked a controversy when he chided Expo ’74 officials for allowing construction of the Sheraton ITT Hotel to continue next to the Washington State Pavilion while Expo was underway.

Evans expressed “absolute astonishment” that (1) the hotel had not been completed in time for Expo, and (2) that Expo officials were going to allow construction to proceed during the fair. He believed that a working construction site next to the Washington State Pavilion was “the symbol of a bad decision.”

Evans had participated in groundbreaking for the hotel a year earlier, with the understanding that it would be finished by the fair’s opening. When he found out about the delay, he said he was so mad he contemplated a “rash action” – withdrawing all state participation in Expo. He later calmed down and settled for a good chiding.

The next day, Expo general manager Petr Spurney agreed that it was “a crying shame” the hotel was not ready for the fair. But he defended the decision to push ahead with construction during the fair. He said “it was better to have the problem of construction during the fair than to have no hotel after the fair.”

From 100 years ago: A member of a semi-official citizens’s vigilante committee saw a man driving down Apple Way with his arm around a “young and beautiful woman.” The vigilante turned the man’s license number over to police because driving in this manner was considered reckless. Police served the driver with a traffic citation at his home.

His wife received the citation, and noted that she was not driving with her husband at the time. She then hired a private detective to gather evidence for a possible divorce proceeding.