Birthplace of LiveJournal: Mercer Hall

This  dorm was at the forefront a social media revolution. Brad Fitzpatrick was a University of Washington Computer Science & Engineering student in 1999 when he developed the pioneering LiveJournal blogging service, working primarily in this building, Mercer Hall East.

Via email recently, Fitzpatrick confirmed the location for us, saying he didn’t remember the room number, but that it was on the third floor on the northeast corner of the building, facing north.

The timing makes LiveJournal 10 years old — as recognized in the birthday cake banner currently on its home page. Relative newcomers such as Facebook get more attention these days, but LiveJournal still reports more than 21 million active users around the world.

LiveJournal was sold in 2005 to Six Apart, the company behind Movable Type and TypePad in a deal that Fitzpatrick explained to users in this LiveJournal post at the time. (”Current Mood: excited.”) Six Apart sold LiveJournal to Russian media company SUP in 2007.

Details: Mercer Hall East, University of Washington. Parking isn’t easy here, so the best way to check out this location is by taking a quick detour during a walk or bike ride on the nearby Burke-Gilman trail.

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