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106 stories matching hardwar
- The Seattle Marksman Who Shot Himself Into a Nervous Breakdown
A hardware store's promotional stunt goes horribly wrong when counting shot holes leads to a mental collapse.
- The Gold That Wasn't There: How Speculators Tried to Mine Their Way Into a Public School Section
A Tacoma hardware merchant swore a state school tract was rich placer ground. The state bored over a thousand feet of shafting, found less than a cent of gold per yard, and still had to fight to keep its own land.
- A Newport Hardware Dealer Takes On the Railroad—and Reaches the State Supreme Court
H. M. Lund's suit asks whether a railroad must pay abutting property owners before running trains down a town street.
- The Tariff That Stung the Tin Can
As the McKinley Bill hikes duties on tin, local canners and hardware merchants brace for price shocks that will ripple through Aberdeen’s economy.
- The Banker Who Built a City: The Death of Joseph R. Hughes
A pioneer hardware merchant and federal land officer dies in Republic, leaving behind a legacy of civic leadership and the founding of the town's first bank.
- The Heavy Bundle that Gave Away a Thief
A German drifter's scheme to fund his return to Prussia is undone by a suspicious, heavy bundle of stolen goods left on a train.
- A Taxpayer Tries to Stop the City From Writing Checks It Can’t Cover
Francis Hoffman and the Olympia Hardware Company ask a judge to block further city warrants, arguing Olympia has blown past its debt limit.
- The Day Newport Showed Off: Fourth of July, 1909
A rain-threatened holiday still drew crowds for an industrial parade, patriotic speeches, baseball, log-rolling and a dance—without a single arrest.
- A Veteran Railroader Reflects on Seattle’s Industrial Growth
After a year as Lake Shore superintendent, I. A. Nadeau retires from the position, looking back on the era when the city’s rail freight grew from a single car of hardware to a hub of transcontinental commerce.
- The Hardware Heist Ends in Betrayal
Two young burglars thought their sailor friend was the perfect fence—until he walked them straight into a police ambush.
- The Revolver as the Best Protection
A hardware merchant turns the tables on a would-be highwayman on Queen Anne Hill.
- The Failed Heist on Second Street
A daring nighttime break-in at a Seattle hardware store is thwarted by an observant watchman.
- A New Bank Opens on East Main
Local business leader J.L. Elam expands his empire with a new private banking institution.
- The Pioneer Variety Store: A Snapshot of Commerce in Early Seattle
Before the age of big-box retailers, local general stores like T. P. Freeman’s served as the essential hubs for hardware, furniture, and household needs on the frontier.
- The Great Yakima Avenue Conflagration
A devastating blaze sweeps through the business district, leveled by fire and saved only by the grit of citizens and a stand of shade trees.
- A Night of Ruin: Olympia’s Business District Ravaged by Fire
A catastrophic blaze tears through a full city block in Olympia, leaving shopkeepers and residents devastated in its wake.
- Fire Devastates Downtown Stanwood
A late-night blaze destroys two city blocks, leaving the community to battle the flames with a bucket brigade after water supply infrastructure fails.
- The Town of Oakesdale Is Reduced to Smoldering Ruins
A three-story hotel blaze consumes the city's business district in just two hours, leaving merchants devastated and the community reeling.
- Telescoped at the Crossing: A Grant Street Horror
When a Northern Pacific freight train plowed into an electric streetcar on May 20, 1909, one man died and dozens were mangled in the icy water below. The crash exposed dangerous speeds and negligent watchmen at a city intersection that remains vital today.
- Seattle’s Tent City: The Great Fire’s Temporary Housing
A detailed census of the makeshift wooden and canvas structures housing the city in the weeks after the Great Seattle Fire of 1889.
- The Great Fire at Schwabacher Bros.
A massive blaze destroys a landmark wholesale house in downtown Seattle, shaking the foundations of Pioneer Square.
- Seattle Rebuilds: Schwabacher Block, Arlington Hotel Lead Construction Surge
Architects unveil plans for new commercial blocks, a school, and hospital expansions as Seattle enters a building frenzy.
- Two Men Asked to Test a Seattle Schooner. Then They Tried to Kill Its Captain.
A would-be buyer and his genteel companion lured Capt. Jud La Moure into Puget Sound, attacked him with a lead sounding weight, and demanded his gold watch—until he produced a hidden revolver.
- A Night of Terror in Tacoma
A massive blaze sweeps through a bustling downtown block, consuming businesses and revealing the precarity of the city's early fire defenses.
- Terror on the Rails
Saboteurs remove a rail from the Northern Pacific track near Buckley, nearly killing hundreds in a deliberate act of destruction.