The archives building is situated in the Windermere neighborhood of Northeast Seattle, near Magnuson Park, and holds 56,000 cubic feet (1,600 m3) of documents and artifacts.

In 2020, the federal government approved plans to close the Seattle branch and sell the property, sparking backlash from local historians and public officials.

[3] As of 2020[update], the Seattle facility has 56,000 cubic feet (1,600 m3) of permanent records, including documents and artifacts from the U.S. states of Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington.

[10] The General Services Administration opened a records center at the Sand Point Naval Air Station in 1951, serving as Seattle's branch of the National Archives.

[17] The arrival of U.S. Census records in 1974 caused public use of the facility to increase from 25 people per day to over 2,500 as interest in genealogy was spurred by the Bicentennial celebration.

[25] The recommended archives closure was approved by the federal government in January 2020, with plans to relocate records to storage facilities in Riverside, California, and Kansas City, Missouri, over an 18-month period.

[27][28] An on-site protest was held by indigenous rights activists on February 11, 2020, while tribal leaders from the Pacific Northwest met with officials from the National Archives and Records Administration.

[31] The planned full closure was challenged by Ferguson in a set of Freedom of Information Act lawsuits filed against NARA, the Office of Management and Budget, and the General Services Administration.