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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1876 | 15 |
| 1877 | 9 |
| 1878 | 4 |
| 1880 | 6 |
34 stories matching abl
- The Perilous Slopes of Columbia Street
A teenage student’s sledding accident sparks a local warning about the dangers of winter recreation on Seattle’s steepest hills.
- The Struggle for an Infrastructure of Our Own
An 1876 editorial reflects on the frustration of relying on federal aid to build the Pacific Northwest, urging locals to fund their own railroads and commercial infrastructure instead.
- The Struggle for Home Ownership in Early Seattle
An 1877 editorial argues that the city's growth is being stifled by speculative land hoarding, keeping affordable homes out of reach for the working class.
- The Price of Poverty in 1877 Seattle
When the County Commissioners opened a new poor house, they explicitly designed it as a workhouse to deter the 'dissolute class' from seeking public assistance.
- The Fairview Dream: Installment Housing in 1878 Seattle
A real estate advertisement for the 'Fairview Addition' highlights the city's early embrace of the installment plan to help working-class families buy land.
- The Fairview Addition: A 19th-Century Real Estate Pitch
An 1878 advertisement for a 'rich, level' tract of land reveals how early Seattle developers used the installment plan to sell the dream of homeownership.
- The Great Housing Squeeze: Seattle's Winter Crisis of 1876
As the territory prepares for winter, a correspondent reports that only two comfortable dwellings remain vacant in Walla Walla, highlighting the acute housing shortages gripping Washington communities.
- The Political Battle for Seattle’s Soul in 1880
A rare glimpse into the intense, hard-fought campaign that cemented Republican power in late 19th-century Seattle.
- The Skagit River Jam Scandal
A public spat between two men regarding the funds collected to clear the Skagit River, a vital waterway for early logging and shipping.
- The Vampire of Hard Times: Why Seattle's Banks Are Starving Its Growth
An editorial in the March 1877 *Seattle Intelligencer* blames the region’s economic stagnation not on a lack of enterprise, but on predatory lending rates that are strangling local industry.
- The Logging Tragedy on the Duwamish
A young worker’s sudden death in the woods serves as a grim reminder of the perils facing early laborers in the Seattle territory.
- The Unwelcome Neighbor
When a Seattle doctor suggested a medical procedure involving a neighboring family, a local woman’s sharp refusal revealed the rigid social anxieties of the frontier.
- The Fire That Never Came: Seattle’s Barely-Staffed Engine Company
In 1878, the city finally bought a hand engine for fire protection, but with only ten men to crew it, officials warned that a real blaze would leave the town helpless.
- Raising the Barn: A Frontier Memory
A look back at the communal labor and rough-and-tumble celebrations that defined building a new life in early Washington Territory.
- The Fight for the First Cascades Rail Line
In 1880, Seattle editors appealed to the 'Walla Walla Statesman' to bridge the mountain divide and unite the Washington territory through trade.
- The Snow Shoveler’s Lesson in Seattle Manners
A local woman learns that dignity isn't just about hard work—it’s about how you carry yourself, even when clearing a sidewalk.
- The First Real Map of Seattle
Before the city could be built, it had to be measured—an 1876 engineering project that defined the street grades of early downtown.
- The Tragic End of a Seattle Logger
After years of success followed by a swift decline in fortune, a once-prosperous logger faces the ruin of his livelihood and his mental health.
- The Vandalism of Seattle’s Fences
An 1880 editorial decries the 'wanton vandalism' of men and boys who whittled, tore, and marked up the city’s decorative fences, signaling a growing urban friction between private pride and public mischief.
- The Logging Logjam: A Close Call on the Seattle Waterfront
When a chain of logs broke loose on the Seattle waterfront, a sudden collision nearly spelled disaster for a steamship navigating the dark bay.
- The Skagit Stand-off: A Survey Interrupted
When federal surveyors moved onto Skagit lands without a treaty, they were met by 150 armed warriors ready to defend their sovereignty.
- The Letter Lost in the Cracks
For twelve years, a village woman waited for a lover who never called, unaware that her promise to join him in China had been trapped behind a post office counter all along.
- The Terrors of Belltown: Youth Gangs and Civic Chaos in 1870
Before it was a bustling neighborhood, Belltown was a site of 'villainous' youth pranks and neighborhood disturbances that left residents clamoring for order.
- The Seattle Correspondent’s Gaze on China
A disorienting, 1877 report from a Seattle newspaper explores the rigid social hierarchies and gender dynamics of the Qing Dynasty through a lens of Victorian fascination.
- The Tenement Trap: Why Seattle’s Working Men Should Be Grateful
A local editorial contrasts the comfortable cottages of early Seattle with the squalid overcrowding of New York City's tenements, urging citizens to value their land and labor.