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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1854 | 1 |
| 1858 | 1 |
| 1859 | 3 |
| 1861 | 2 |
| 1862 | 8 |
| 1863 | 1 |
| 1864 | 1 |
| 1876 | 37 |
| 1877 | 25 |
| 1878 | 12 |
| 1879 | 1 |
| 1880 | 7 |
| 1882 | 7 |
| 1883 | 55 |
| 1884 | 28 |
| 1885 | 29 |
| 1886 | 21 |
| 1887 | 15 |
| 1888 | 19 |
| 1889 | 53 |
| 1890 | 6 |
| 1891 | 53 |
| 1892 | 86 |
| 1893 | 86 |
| 1894 | 90 |
| 1895 | 113 |
| 1897 | 2 |
| 1898 | 6 |
| 1899 | 15 |
| 1900 | 1 |
| 1902 | 1 |
| 1903 | 33 |
| 1904 | 18 |
| 1905 | 5 |
| 1907 | 4 |
| 1908 | 12 |
| 1909 | 28 |
| 1910 | 10 |
| 1911 | 1 |
| 1914 | 5 |
| 1915 | 6 |
| 1916 | 4 |
| 1917 | 4 |
| 1923 | 1 |
| 1924 | 1 |
| 1925 | 1 |
918 stories matching occupi
- Seattle’s Rebirth After the Great Fire
While the embers of the 1889 Great Fire were still cooling, the city's architects and business leaders immediately began a frenzied, organized effort to rebuild the commercial district in brick and stone.
- Hotel Stine Reduced to Ashes in Walla Walla
A faulty fire response and a quick-moving blaze gutted a landmark hotel in the heart of downtown, leaving guests fleeing for safety.
- Saying Goodbye to Seattle's Finest Residence
A historic home, once the city’s grandest, is rolled away to make room for progress.
- The Loot Stashed in the Shadows of the Great Seattle Fire
While the city scrambled to recover from the devastation of the Great Fire, scavengers used the chaos as cover to plunder private homes.
- Inside the New King County Jail
A detailed look at the 'infallible' brick and iron lockup built to replace older, makeshift holding cells in 1870s Seattle.
- Fire Leaves South Seattle Helpless
A devastating blaze destroyed two grocery stores and a local lodge room because the buildings sat just one block beyond the reach of the city water mains.
- The Health Board Targets Opera Alley's Squalor
City officials inspect disease-breeding housing conditions occupied by foreign laborers.
- The Brick Renaissance: Transforming Seattle’s 'Tinderbox' Downtown
As Seattle began to outgrow its temporary wooden origins, local businessmen pushed to replace fire-prone wooden structures with modern brick blocks, signaling a new era of permanence and civic ambition.
- Winter Fire Destroys Cottage Near Old Town
A morning fire leaves a local family homeless, while a separate blaze claims a notorious dance hall just as its license expires.
- The Police Chief Who Couldn't Keep Order
For two years, Seattle's police force has been mired in incompetence and apathy under a Chief who avoids the law.
- An Old Tacoma Church Crumbles
A historic Catholic building, moved to make way for development, is destroyed by a winter storm before it could be repurposed.
- The Boomtown That Was: A Glimpse of Seattle in 1876
A survey of the territory paints a portrait of a frontier Seattle defined by the roar of sawmills, the promise of coal, and the ambition to conquer the Cascades.
- Home of Boom Overseer Destroyed by Fire
Passengers on the Clan McDonald discover a house engulfed in flames while passing, but it is too late to save the structure.
- A Bishop Claimed 430 Acres of a Federal Military Reservation
The Roman Catholic Bishop of Nesqually went to the U.S. Supreme Court to secure title to the Vancouver military reservation, setting church, Crown-era permission, and federal ownership against one another.
- Newport's Petition to Expel the Kalispel
In 1909, a petition circulated by a local captain asked Congress to move Calispel families off their Pend Oreille Valley lands—using smallpox and timber fires as arguments for removal.
- The Siege of Third Street
When tenants refused to vacate their boarding house, a Seattle landlord responded by nailing the gates shut and mounting a guard.
- Two Fires Before Dawn, and One Engine to Cover Both
Turner Hall burned to the ground at 2:50 a.m., and while the department was still out, a row of four cottages went up at Twenty-fourth and M.
- An Excursion to the San Juan Islands
A pleasure party explores the lime kilns and historic military sites of the San Juan group, reflecting on the area's transition after the boundary dispute.
- The Detective Who Could Smell a Crime
A keen-nosed Tacoma detective tracked an opium den by its scent, leading to the arrest of two men and the confiscation of 'elegant' pipes.
- The Housing Squeeze of 1889
With not a single vacant house in town, developer W.H. Kneeland is rushing to build four new double tenements.
- The Land Grab That Stalled at Metaline
A speculator tried to claim the Metaline townsite by scrip, but found the ground already occupied. The fight moved to the surrounding land—and residents began pushing for a government townsite instead.
- The Battle for the Ballard Waterfront
A long-standing feud between the city of Ballard and a railroad company culminates in a dramatic late-night confrontation over street construction on the tide flats.
- The Courthouse That Built Itself
As Seattle transitioned from a frontier lumber outpost into a formal city, the County Commissioners finally took the 'bull by the horns' to replace scattered offices with a grand civic monument.
- The Governor Tells Olympia to Tighten Its Belt
In 1895, Governor McGraw used his message to demand retrenchment, railroad reform and a quick end to the U.S. Senate fight so lawmakers could get to the people's business.
- A Petition to Open Calispel Land—and Remove Its People
Congressman Wesley L. Jones carried a Cusick-area removal petition to the Indian Office, where officials weighed how to open the land to white settlement.