The End of Rummage

IF NOT FOR ITS ACADEMIC REPUTATION or its collegelike red-brick campus, what Lakeside is perhaps best known for in the Seattle region is the Rummage Sale. The school launched the event in 1951 in the Chapel basement, and subsequently held it in locations as varied and vast as the Seattle Center Flag Pavilion and an 89,000-square-foot double hangar at Magnuson Park. At one point, the sale had enough merchandise to fill 11 semitrailers, each 45 feet long. The biannual sale quickly became a tradition and an important fundraiser for the Parents and Guardians Association. Now, after 68 years of sales interrupted by a global pandemic, involving factors that began more than a decade ago, the PGA has made the difficult decision to permanently cancel what was — for many Seattleites — their first, or only, introduction to Lakeside School.

— Zane R. ’24, from the March 2023 issue of Tatler, announcing the end of the long-running Lakeside Rummage Sale.