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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 |
1,115 stories
- A Total Circus Failure
A traveling circus skips the city license fees and leaves the locals furious with a botched performance.
- Chasing Gold in the Yakima River
A group of enterprising prospectors has constructed a specialized barge to extract gold from the sands of the Yakima River.
- The Butcher's Close Shave
A drunken patron at the local butcher shop turned violent, leading to a physical altercation with the proprietor.
- The Violent Reformation of Bumble the Dog
A notorious St. Bernard, known for terrorizing local residents, has a new owner with a questionable theory on canine rehabilitation.
- The Morning After: Seattle's Social Hangover
As the holiday season fades and Lent approaches, Seattle society retreats into a temporary lull following a whirlwind of dancing clubs, private dinners, and extravagant parties.
- The Underground Economy of Club Love Letters
A century before texting, Seattle's gentlemen of leisure found ways to bypass the stuffy, anti-romance rules of private social clubs.
- The Dream of the Suburban Garden Plot
Developers in 1891 sold city dwellers on the 'choicest' acreages just outside of the developing Seattle core, promising a life of suburban gardens along the new Rainier Avenue electric line.
- Repairs for the Chinook on the Waterfront
A routine dispatch from the January 1891 docks captures the industrial heart of old Seattle, where the tugboat Chinook sits on the beach for repairs at the foot of Jackson Street.
- The Unseen Labor of 1891 Seattle
A single classified advertisement captures the presence and aspiration of Japanese laborers in the Pacific Northwest at the end of the 19th century.
- The Land That Wasn't: A Seattle Man’s Bid for Federal Territory
While Congress debates silver pools and election bills in Washington D.C., a local resident named Wilson files an application for public land in the vast, unorganized territory of Washington.
- The Last Goodbye: A Seattle Widow’s Final Sermon
Rev. I.W. Read delivers a poignant eulogy for Addie Z. Pross at Market Street Baptist, reflecting on her hopefulness and refusal to gossip in the face of sudden death.
- The Masquerade Ball at Judge Keyes' House
A motley crew of ghosts, devils, and literary figures gather for a secretive and exuberant social event in Aberdeen.
- The Christmas Dream at the Window
A local resident drifts into a vivid, celestial vision of the Nativity, only to wake up back in North Yakima.
- The Town's Elite Take Up Knee-Breeches
A satirical poem mocks Aberdeen's socialites for adopting the latest high-fashion trend.
- The City That Wouldn't Stop Building
Fresh from the ashes of the Great Seattle Fire of 1889, the city defied expectations of a cooldown, pouring over $10 million into a massive 1890 construction boom.
- The Boom Town That Rose from the Ashes
How Seattle’s rapid transformation and architectural resurgence in the 1890s was fueled by coal, timber, and the decisive payout of insurance firms after the Great Seattle Fire.
- The Waterfront Scandal: A Questionable Contract for Seattle’s New Fire Boat
The Washington Iron Works alleges that city officials bypassed proper oversight in a murky deal for the city's new fire-fighting vessel.
- The Ghost City of Utsalady
In 1891, a developer touted Utsalady as a burgeoning industrial giant on the Sound, envisioning it as a 'second Seattle' fueled by timber, coal, and mineral wealth. History took a different path.
- The Domestic Help Crisis of 1891
As the Pacific Northwest boomed, the P-I warned that a 'growing distaste' for housework among the working class threatened to turn the domestic service shortage into a bigger issue than currency reform.
- The Boom That Never Was: How Utsalaay Tried to Steal Seattle's Thunder
In 1901, a rival town on Puget Sound launched an aggressive land sales campaign, claiming its harbor was superior and its resources 'inexhaustible,' while Seattle’s own economy sat in a dull slump.
- The Boarding House Voter: A Woman’s Letter on Electoral Fraud
In January 1891, Elizabeth Lyle Saxon writes to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer from Whatcom County, arguing that her experience running a boarding house reveals how easily voters can manipulate residency laws to sway contested elections.
- The Dream of Ravenna Park: A Victorian Utopia in the Pines
Promoted as a 'city of churches' and culture, W.W. Beck’s ambitious Ravenna development sought to mirror an Italian paradise on the shores of Lake Washington.
- A Warm Haven in the Heart of the Skid Road
While Seattle’s winter chill drove men to the fringes, one mission at Second and Jackson offered a rare sanctuary of light and literature for the city's struggling laborers.
- The Birth of a Neighborhood on Queen Anne Hill
A 1891 promotional advertisement offers a glimpse into the rapid expansion of Seattle, as land developers pushed into the forests above Lake Union.
- The End of the Hochfutter Lodging House
A court-ordered liquidation of a Pike Street boarding house captures the fragile reality of housing in early 1890s Seattle.