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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1854 | 7 |
| 1858 | 4 |
| 1859 | 6 |
| 1860 | 6 |
| 1861 | 11 |
| 1862 | 6 |
| 1863 | 4 |
| 1864 | 1 |
| 1865 | 2 |
| 1871 | 2 |
| 1872 | 17 |
| 1876 | 153 |
| 1877 | 135 |
| 1878 | 70 |
| 1879 | 9 |
| 1880 | 24 |
| 1882 | 33 |
| 1883 | 186 |
| 1884 | 99 |
| 1885 | 110 |
| 1886 | 59 |
| 1887 | 63 |
| 1888 | 93 |
| 1889 | 319 |
| 1890 | 55 |
| 1891 | 199 |
| 1892 | 361 |
| 1893 | 330 |
| 1894 | 241 |
| 1895 | 340 |
| 1897 | 7 |
| 1898 | 27 |
| 1899 | 54 |
| 1900 | 6 |
| 1902 | 9 |
| 1903 | 148 |
| 1904 | 122 |
| 1905 | 23 |
| 1907 | 7 |
| 1908 | 79 |
| 1909 | 224 |
| 1910 | 50 |
| 1911 | 11 |
| 1912 | 7 |
| 1914 | 23 |
| 1915 | 40 |
| 1916 | 67 |
| 1917 | 50 |
| 1918 | 2 |
| 1923 | 24 |
| 1924 | 18 |
| 1925 | 7 |
| 1928 | 2 |
| 1929 | 2 |
241 stories matching build
- The Pork Barrel Standoff
Washington State’s Representative John L. Wilson stops a Texas infrastructure bill until the needs of the Northwest are recognized.
- A Sudden Death at the Masonic Temple
A janitor who kept the furnaces running at the Second and Pike building dies quietly while at his post.
- The Building That Fell Down
Owners and contractors are locked in a court battle over the construction of a brick building at Third and Washington that collapsed during its assembly.
- The Last-Second Injunction That Saved a Seattle Building From the Railroad
Judge Langley cleared the way for demolition, then a federal mortgage-holder's suit stopped the axes at the Colman block.
- Arson Suspected After Fire Devours the Ballard News
A 2 a.m. blaze destroyed a newspaper plant and several buildings in Ballard; the fire chief’s engine never made it through the roads.
- A Contractor Tried to Quit a School Job Because the Ground Was Too Dangerous
James Parks warned Seattle's school board that building a retaining wall at the South School could endanger the building. After two board sessions, he withdrew his letter and went back to work.
- The Price of Pioneer Street
A suspected incendiary blaze tears through a grocery and saloon, narrowly missing the Kink Opera House.
- A Judge Freezes Seattle's $118,000 School-Building Fund
Queen Anne Hill residents win a temporary injunction barring the school board from spending 1894 tax money on anything but that year's warrants and new school buildings.
- A Rope of Rags, a Jar of Coal Oil, and a Tacoma Arson Plot
Fire Chief Bruemmer found a carefully laid fuse running through a mortgaged tenement—just before the owner left town for Neah Bay.
- Searching for the University’s Past
Pioneers dig up the 1861 cornerstone of the old University of Washington building to reclaim its secrets.
- The Waterfront Tug-of-War (Feb 14, 1894)
A legal stalemate halts railroad track expansion as property owners fight for their land rights.
- Judge Burke: Washington cannot borrow a dollar to build its capitol
Answering Populist weeklies that accused the capitol commission of planning to sink the state a million dollars into debt, commissioner Thomas Burke said the law allows exactly one funding source — 132,000 acres of granted land — and no taxes at all.
- Blaze at the National Bank of Commerce
A kitchen fire at the Commercial Club leaves the building soaked and damaged.
- The Judge Says the School Board Can Spend the Building Levy on Anything It Likes
A resident of the newly annexed district sued to force Seattle's school money into bricks and mortar only. Judge Osborn dissolved the injunction, sustained the board's demurrer, and sent the plaintiffs back to rewrite their complaint.
- A Free Kindergarten Wants the Old South School—and the City's Horses Out
The Free Kindergarten Association asks for the old South School building, now the city stables, promising donated labor and materials—but the school board cannot muster a quorum to answer.
- The Night Ballard Almost Burned
A kerosene lamp in a candy store touched off a blaze that leapt across Ballard Avenue—then the town’s water gave out just as the business district caught.
- Queen Anne parents ask where the $25,000 school levy went
A delegation from the Queen Anne district told the school board it had both the money and the legal duty to build a schoolhouse on the hill. The board conceded the need, blamed the county treasurer's books, and referred the whole thing to committee.
- The Great Northern Hotel Burned to the Ground in Mount Vernon
A three-story frame hotel near the depot was gone within minutes, and twenty-five lodgers barely escaped with their lives.
- A Chicago Syndicate Wants a Refrigerator-Car Factory — and It Wants the Land for Free
A Chicago car builder tours Tacoma and Seattle touting a plant that could turn out up to sixty refrigerator cars a day, weighing Puget Sound lumber against Eastern iron — and letting it be known the syndicate is open to "propositions for donated sites."
- Seattle's Public Library Gets a Grand Opening
Civic leaders and citizens celebrate the opening of the city’s new library rooms, featuring an elegant ladies' reading room and aspirations for a permanent building.
- Seattle's Central Market Burns in the City's Largest Fire
A night blaze destroys the Central Market building, kills a lineman, and leaves hundreds of commission merchants and market gardeners ruined.
- South Union Schoolhouse Lost to Forest Fires
A local schoolhouse, along with a significant portion of its contents, was consumed by wildfire spreading through the district near Aberdeen.
- Tools Found, Thief Caught
A young man is arrested months after a suspected larceny involving building materials in the aftermath of a fire.
- Nineteen Buildings Gone Before Breakfast
With no fire department and only buckets, the Kitsap County seat of Sidney watched its entire business district burn to the ground in three hours — then promised to rebuild as Seattle had.
- Seattle YWCA Rents Burke Building Rooms for Working Women
With the Y.W.C.A. newly established in the Burke Building, Seattle women organize to support young laborers arriving in the city.