[2][3][4] Living to the age of 105 and active in business almost to the end of his life, he became an invaluable source of information about the history of Seattle and the Puget Sound region.

[2][3][4] According to Nard Jones, Green was one of the city of Seattle's last fluent speakers of Chinook Jargon, the pidgin trade language of the Pacific Northwest.

Green worked as a chainman, surveying for the Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railway, then on the sternwheeler Henry Bailey, a Puget Sound Mosquito Fleet vessel that also went up the Skagit River.

"[6] Green's innovative business practices[7] soon allowed him to become a fleet owner, president of what was named the La Conner Trading and Transportation Company,[4] owning some rather more elegant vessels, such as the sidewheeler George E.

[4] The company survived several ship fires, as well as the Depression that followed the Panic of 1893, then prospered greatly in the Klondike Gold Rush, transporting miners and their gear to Alaska.

[11] In 1966 the Joshua Green Fountain, by renowned sculptor George Tsutakawa, was installed at the entry to Washington State Ferries' facility on the Seattle waterfront.

[16] Green made few alterations to the 1901 house, and lived there until his death, making it one of the few First Hill mansions to survive largely intact to the present time.

[19] The Joshua Green Foundation is focused on major capital campaigns of 501 (c)(3) non-profit organizations headquartered and operating in the Seattle/King County area, primarily private secondary and higher education, social services and the arts.