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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1854 | 62 |
| 1858 | 29 |
| 1859 | 52 |
| 1860 | 27 |
| 1861 | 101 |
| 1862 | 87 |
| 1863 | 69 |
| 1864 | 32 |
| 1865 | 11 |
| 1871 | 11 |
| 1872 | 140 |
| 1876 | 812 |
| 1877 | 678 |
| 1878 | 526 |
| 1879 | 64 |
| 1880 | 180 |
| 1882 | 130 |
| 1883 | 911 |
| 1884 | 499 |
| 1885 | 838 |
| 1886 | 492 |
| 1887 | 484 |
| 1888 | 440 |
| 1889 | 1,324 |
| 1890 | 287 |
| 1891 | 1,115 |
| 1892 | 2,855 |
| 1893 | 2,829 |
| 1894 | 2,116 |
| 1895 | 1,830 |
| 1896 | 2 |
| 1897 | 62 |
| 1898 | 196 |
| 1899 | 446 |
| 1900 | 114 |
| 1902 | 34 |
| 1903 | 1,332 |
| 1904 | 1,126 |
| 1905 | 124 |
| 1907 | 53 |
| 1908 | 351 |
| 1909 | 1,545 |
| 1910 | 413 |
| 1911 | 160 |
| 1912 | 73 |
| 1914 | 261 |
| 1915 | 300 |
| 1916 | 545 |
| 1917 | 332 |
| 1918 | 45 |
| 1919 | 5 |
| 1920 | 1 |
| 1922 | 18 |
| 1923 | 185 |
| 1924 | 151 |
| 1925 | 64 |
| 1928 | 14 |
| 1929 | 19 |
1,324 stories
- The City That Wasn't: Port Townsend’s Bold Pitch to Steal Seattle’s Thunder
In January 1889, the Mayor of Port Townsend published a scathing list of 'facts' in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, arguing that his town was the true commercial heart of the Pacific Northwest while Seattle remained a mere backwater.
- The Gambler Who Outsmarted the City Hall
In Tacoma, a local sharp named Morgan has become so powerful that citizens are joking he holds more sway than the elected officials.
- The Block Party: Young Married Couples Plot to Buy an Entire City Block in Seattle
As streetcar lines extend to the suburbs, a group of young professionals in Seattle are pooling their resources to purchase a whole block of land, aiming to build matching homes and create a private enclave.
- The Future of East Seattle: A New Coney Island for the Northwest
As cable cars crowd toward Lake Washington on Sundays, developers Stern & Miller promise a pleasure resort of hotels and dancing pavilions that will eclipse all others.
- The 'Boom Town' Bust of Chin Kiang
A cautionary tale of real estate speculation from the pages of 1889 Seattle.
- The 'Baneful' Habit Griping Seattle's Youth
As cigarettes gained popularity among city boys, turn-of-the-century moralists and physicians in Seattle sounded the alarm, linking the 'sallow-faced' habit to everything from indigestion to moral decay.
- The City Council’s War on Inflammable Storage
New regulations restricted the storage of petroleum, naphtha, and gasoline, mandating fireproof construction and buffer zones from the waterfront.
- The Original Queen Anne Land Rush
An 1889 promotional advertisement offers a rare look into how early developers sold the 'aristocratic' promise of Seattle’s steep topography to land-hungry investors.
- The Celebrity Cult of the Gilded Age
A writer in 1888 questions the bizarre, sycophantic public obsession with the ultra-wealthy, who are 'petted in Belgravia' simply for their riches.
- The Global Wheat Gamble
A look at the 1889 wheat market reveals how Seattle growers were betting on distant Australian droughts and European shortages to secure profits.
- The Great Seattle Land Rush of 1886
While the city's population surged, land agents flooded the newspapers with ads promising cheap fortunes in the newly platted additions of Seattle.
- The Real Estate Pitch That Promised a Mediterranean Paradise in West Seattle
A 1889 promotional blurb captures the early, breathless hyperbole used to sell West Seattle as the 'Italy of the Pacific Northwest.'
- The Great Seattle Tax Delinquency List
A vast, published ledger of delinquent property owners across Seattle's emerging neighborhoods exposes the precariousness of early land ownership.
- The Shifting Foundations of Early Seattle
Before the grand campus was built, the University of Washington's temporary home was a collection of borrowed spaces, including fire stations and churches.
- The Real Estate Boom of the 'West End'
Developers pitch the sweeping vistas of West Seattle as the city's future crowning jewel, borrowing praise from a San Francisco journal to lure investors.
- The Great Migration to the 'Power of Central Washington'
An 1889 promotional poem and report lured families from the 'crowded cities' of the East and Midwest to the promised land of the Wenatchee River valley.
- The Milk-Drinking Controversy
A late 19th-century public health debate in Seattle challenges traditional wisdom on how, and how often, to feed the city's infants.
- The Tale of the Dreamer and the Practical Planner
A satirical editorial sketches the divergent paths of two Seattle-area visionaries: one chasing a 'paradise' of industry and wealth, the other a dreamer building canals and libraries.
- The Forgotten Waterfront Auction of 1889
A court-ordered liquidation of the City Sawmill property on the Seattle waterfront provides a rare snapshot of the capital structures and industrial machinery that fueled the city's early, rapid expansion.
- The Price of Labor in the New Metropolis
An 1889 editorial wrestles with the tension between rising Seattle labor costs and the realities of an booming frontier economy.
- The Streetcar Boom: Seattle's 1890 Expansion to Green Lake
A classic real estate play unfolds as the Electric Railway Company breaks ground, promising to bridge the distance between downtown and the 'famous' green fields of the north.
- The Great Seattle Land Rush: West Seattle and Lake Union Lots Vanish in Days
As the city expands beyond its original hills, developers are selling off prime waterfront real estate at bargain prices before the next boom hits.
- The Snake Oil Salesman of Seattle
A traveling 'magnetic' doctor promises miraculous cures for everything from asthma to consumption, setting up shop in 1889 Seattle.
- Queen Anne Addition Advertised 420 Water-View Lots
Developers pitch the 'Queen Anne Second Addition' with lofty promises of salt-water views, rapid transit, and colossal fortunes for the savvy investor.
- The Unattainable Dream of a Seattle Boarding House
A glimpse into the precarious housing market of 1880s Seattle, where a small slice of land near the bustling Occidental Hotel could cost a fortune.