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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1876 | 8 |
| 1877 | 6 |
| 1880 | 4 |
18 stories matching shape
- The Rising Market: New Construction on Seneca Street
A two-story residence takes shape as Seattle’s growth continues to push the city outward in 1877.
- The Perilous Sidewalks of Mill Street
Seattle’s rapid urban expansion in 1878 has left pedestrians navigating ten-foot drops without a single railing in sight.
- The Shadow Ledger: Seattle’s Monthly Arrest List
A raw, unfiltered tally of twenty-nine arrests made in June 1878 exposes the policing of Seattle’s streets—where poverty, Indigeneity, and ethnic status shaped the reach of the law.
- The Labor of Your First Thousand
A classic 1876 editorial from the Seattle Daily Intelligencer on the moral and industrial value of earning one's keep from scratch.
- The Transformation of the 'Lava Bed'
A historic Seattle neighborhood known for 'drunken revelry and hellish orgies' faces an impending industrial rebirth.
- The Perilous Mudholes of Early Seattle
A wagon spill involving a local judge exposes the treacherous, unpaved state of Seattle’s streets in 1876.
- The Man Who Walked the Continent: A Fifteen-Year Pilgrimage Ends in Seattle
Frank M. Streamer arrives in the Pacific Northwest after completing a staggering 14,000-mile journey on foot across the United States, offering a rare glimpse into the grueling reality of 19th-century travel.
- An Invitation to a Celestial Feast
An 1877 dispatch offers a rare, albeit patronizing, glimpse into the intricate social etiquette and lavish dining culture of Seattle’s Chinese mercantile class.
- The Indestructible Spring Chicken
A satirical look at local wildlife hunting and the legendary toughness of the American barnyard bird.
- The Struggle for a Fire-Safe City
Early Seattleites grapple with the slow, expensive process of organizing a volunteer fire department to protect a rapidly growing town.
- The Pioneer Struggle for Seattle’s Water Supply
In 1876, the city of Seattle debated whether water should be a public utility or a private asset, setting the stage for decades of infrastructure fights.
- The Midnight Treasure Hunt on Coffin Island
A fever for gold and Captain Kidd’s fabled riches sends Seattle-area prospectors into a frenzy of night-time digging.
- The Unsung Genius of the Barrel
A deep dive into the history of an everyday object that the 1880s public took for granted, tracing its utility from Egyptian antiquity to modern Seattle.
- The Weight of Little Things
A century and a half ago, a Seattle writer mused on how the smallest details of life—a penny, a word, a drop of water—shape our massive, often overwhelming destinies.
- The Silent Epidemic: Diphtheria in 1880 Seattle
A harrowing, vivid account of the early stages of diphtheria, a 'perplexing theme' of illness that terrorized families and baffled medical practitioners in the Washington Territory.
- The Arctic Ghost Ships Found in a Seattle Paper
A haunting inventory of the lost Franklin Expedition, recovered by Lieutenant Schwatka, offers a somber look at the items that survived a generation in the ice.
- A Deadly Souvenir of the Battle of Seattle
Twenty-one years after the 1856 Battle of Seattle, a local man struck a hidden relic in a fir tree that could have turned lethal.
- The Moss-Cloaked Giants of Bay Center
A teacher’s letter from the Pacific Northwest frontier describes a landscape of colossal trees and lush undergrowth, challenging the myth of the harsh pioneer struggle.