Research the archive
Narrow 27,002 newspaper stories by words, years, place, newspaper and subject. See when and where they ran, then download what you find.
Put a phrase in quotes ("rent strike") or leave a word out with a minus (strike -baseball). Old scans misspell names, so when little is found, near-spellings are offered.
Refine1 on
Show the numbers
| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1888 | 3 |
| 1889 | 4 |
| 1891 | 1 |
| 1892 | 11 |
| 1893 | 11 |
| 1894 | 5 |
| 1895 | 19 |
54 stories matching generat
- Seattle's Early Electric Power Wars
As rival power companies rush to wire the city, a price war breaks out, forcing residents to choose between competing arc-light contracts.
- The Science of Charity: Seattle’s 1892 War on Beggary
Before modern social safety nets, Seattle churches pushed a 'scientific' model of charity to distinguish between the 'deserving' poor and what they termed fraudulent street mendicants.
- The Great Snoqualmie Adventure: A Victorian Weekend Outing
A group of Seattle elites and their spirited guide, 'Mac,' trek into the wilderness to discover if the legends of Snoqualmie Falls and the local fishing are truly as grand as promised.
- The Seven-Century-Old Shop-Worn Buddhas
A Seattle jeweler’s lawsuit over antique statues reveals a strange, centuries-spanning trail from a Japanese temple to a King County courtroom.
- The Great Freight War: Tacoma vs. Seattle
Seattle merchants accuse the Pacific Coast Steamship Company of deliberately starving the city of goods to favor rival Tacoma, sparking a public dispute over civic equity and economic survival.
- The Sugar Trust Checks In at the Rainier
At the Rainier Hotel, sugar magnate H. O. Havemeyer explains how the trust reincorporated after being declared illegal and predicts Seattle and Tacoma will control Pacific shipping north of San Francisco.
- A Mother Taken From a Spree: Seattle's Temperance Crusade Fixes on One Family
A well-dressed mother of three is found drunk and taken to the city station to recover — and the Post-Intelligencer turns her private ruin into a sermon on marriage, appetite and the duty of the state.
- Engineers Say Snoqualmie Falls Can Light the Sound
A New York journal sizes up the 260-foot falls at 18,000 horsepower and predicts a company will soon wire Seattle and Tacoma to the river.
- The First Wedding in Seattle, Replayed 42 Years Later
David T. Denny and Louisa Denny marked their 42nd anniversary at Decatur Terrace with pioneer friends, a Chinook pow-wow, and a grandson's poem.
- Washington's House Votes to Ban Cigarettes — and the Tobacco Trust Moves In
In 1893 the state House passed a prohibition on cigarette sales after a debate that mixed moral reform, monopoly fears and anti-Chinese prejudice. Lobbyists were already working the Senate.
- The Goldendale Airship Nobody Saw Coming
A secretive inventor reports a successful flight in an aluminum airship—eight years before Kitty Hawk.
- A Gold-Headed Cane for the Man Who Stayed on the Phone in a Burning Mine
Newcastle honored C.C. Anderson, who kept giving orders to trapped miners as the roof burned above him.
- The High Stakes 'Sing-Gamble' of the Cedar River
For over 130 hours, tribes from the Black, Cedar, and Puyallup rivers engaged in an ancient, rhythmic gambling ritual near Renton, staking their entire winter's livelihood on the outcome.
- Seattle Burned the Devil's Playthings in the City Furnace
The Colored Pastime Club's cards and tables went up in smoke, reviving memories of the Budweiser raid, Sheriff Cochran's cleanup, and the 1885 Chinese riots.
- The Waterfall That Would Light Seattle
In 1895, promoters promised to harness Snoqualmie Falls—taller than Niagara and only 23 miles from Seattle—and send thousands of horsepower over copper wire.
- Buy Our Waterworks, or We'll Sell You to a Syndicate
Tacoma's Light and Water Company files its inventory for a $1.75 million city buyout — and a critic notes that the company has always known how to win a Tacoma election.
- The Niagara of the Northwest: Wiring Snoqualmie Falls to Seattle
A new company with $2 million in capital proposes to harness a 265-foot waterfall 23 miles east and sell 5,000 horse power of electricity to the city — if the capitalists will foot the bill.
- The Streetcar Combine That Built North Seattle
D. T. Denny and his sons bought control of the Consolidated Street Railway, merged it with the Third Street electric line, and set their sights on every route north of downtown.
- The Seidlitz-Powder Scheme to Raise a Sunken Ship
Confident investors bought a wreck off Grays Harbor and promised to lift it with secret chemicals, carbonic gas, and a patent they had not quite finished.
- Seattle's Free Kindergarten Prepares to Open Its Doors
A new charity school at the old South School on Main Street will offer free early education and train a new generation of kindergarten teachers.
- When Seattle Society Turned Shakespeare Into a Skirt-Dance Spectacle
The Seattle Athletic Club packed Cordray's Theater for three nights with an all-local Shakespeare travesty, imported costumes, and a cameo from 'everybody' in society.
- The First Wedding in Seattle, Celebrated Forty-Two Years Later
David and Louisa Denny gather four generations of pioneers at their Temperance Street home, where relics of the 1850s—and the certificate from Seattle’s first marriage—turn an anniversary into a founding story.
- The Iron Mountain That Built a City: How Denny’s Discovery Fueled Seattle’s Industrial Ambition
A national mining expert confirms the rich iron deposits on Mount Rainier are ready for exploitation, promising to turn Seattle into the steel-making capital of the Pacific Northwest.
- Seattle's Canal Backers Turn Up the Pressure—and the Cash
Boosters behind the Lake Washington canal reported fresh subscriptions, promised a gravity water supply for the tide flats, and argued the city could not afford to miss its chance.
- Seattle's Streets Were Made of Wood. The Fight to Pave Them Was On.
A City Council vote for brick on Pike Street signaled the end of makeshift plank roads—if Seattle could stomach the first cost.