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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1872 | 8 |
| 1876 | 9 |
| 1877 | 6 |
| 1878 | 12 |
| 1879 | 1 |
| 1880 | 4 |
40 stories matching move
- The Land is Moving Beneath the Mills
As Seattle's waterfront expansion struggles against unstable geology, a sash and door factory is forced to shutter as the hillside slips toward the bay.
- The Hilltop Slip: Seattle’s Shifting Waterfront
Decades before the regrades reshaped the city, residents of the Belltown waterfront watched their homes slide into the bay as the ground beneath them turned to quicksand.
- The Great Egg Exodus: Why One Seattle Boarding House Keeper is Trading City Squalor for Fidalgo Island Farming
In a move that defies the city's booming real estate speculation, Mrs. Johnson abandons her Commercial Street boarding house to launch a poultry empire on Fidalgo Island, proving that sometimes the best investment is a flock of chickens.
- Instant Housing in the Northwest
When a family arrived in Dayton, Washington, and found no homes available for rent, they didn't wait—they built their own in a single afternoon.
- The Baker’s Strike: Twelve Hours for $12
In a bold move against grueling labor conditions, Seattle’s bakers are contemplating a strike to demand shorter hours and fair wages, challenging the era's standard of 18-hour workdays.
- The Price of Industrial Progress: A Port Madison Tragedy
A dockside worker is crushed while maneuvering heavy machinery, highlighting the precarious nature of labor in the Puget Sound timber industry.
- The Shadow of the Gallows in Early Seattle
A crowded courtroom watches as a man is sentenced to hang for a murder on San Juan Island, marking a grim moment in the early administration of justice in Washington Territory.
- A Deadly Commute to the Newcastle Mines
A ship carpenter’s fatal attempt to board a moving coal train highlights the dangerous conditions of industrial life in 1880s Seattle.
- A Seattle Fish Firm Fires Its Chinese Workers — and the Paper Cheers
In 1877, Tull & Co. dismissed all of its Chinese employees and hired white men in their place, a move the Dispatch celebrated as patriotism.
- The Perils of the Seattle Coal Incline
Two railroad workers are severely injured within 24 hours while attempting to board moving coal cars in a grim, repetitive industrial accident.
- A Seven-Ton Crushing on Mill Street
A laborer’s insistence on helping a heavy team leads to a gruesome injury in the heart of 1876 Seattle.
- Seattle's 1878 Auction of Property for Unpaid Taxes
When the city of Seattle moved to liquidate the private property of its citizens to cover a year of unpaid taxes.
- The Human Spider of Occidental Square
A sailor scaled a 135-foot flagpole in downtown Seattle to keep the city’s Fourth of July celebrations on schedule.
- The Schoolmistress and the Fortune Hunter
A young clerk attempts to choose between his sweetheart and a family inheritance, only to find the choice has already been made for him.
- The Fight for the Pacific Trade
Seattle observes with anxiety as railroad titans and San Francisco money markets clash over the future of Puget Sound trade.
- The Great Hops Hoax: Tacoma’s ‘Massive’ Landslide Turns Out to Be a Trifle
Panic swept the Sound when reports claimed a catastrophic slide at Tacoma had buried buildings and halted rail traffic. The Dispatch reveals the truth: only twenty acres of land moved, knocking over a few Chinese cabins, while the real drama was just steamers running late.
- The Struggle to Build the First King County Jail
After years of delay, the King County Commissioners finally moved to secure land for a permanent jail—using $3,500 in county warrants to purchase a lot between Jefferson and Mill Streets.
- The Bridge Over Broken Trust
In 1878, a sharp dissent by a King County Commissioner reveals the classic political struggle over infrastructure spending and the limits of the public purse.
- The Price of Order: Seattle’s 1878 County Budget
A deep dive into the 1878 King County audit reveals a frontier government struggling to balance the books through liquor licenses, jail construction, and the high cost of local justice.
- The Absurd Scheme to Build a Railway to the Top of Mount Rainier
When a coal mine failed, desperate land speculators proposed a preposterous tourist railroad to the summit of the mountain to boost property values.
- The Political Price of a Road
Seattle citizens threaten to trade the state capital to Walla Walla to secure a vital road link, as regional rivalries threaten to derail the city's future.
- The Sisters of Providence Take Over Seattle's County Farm
In an era of rapid expansion, King County commissioners shift the burden of social welfare for the impoverished and ill to the Sisters of the House of Providence for a fixed annual rent.
- The Silver Dollar Crusade: Seattle’s Local Echo of a National Money War
While the nation debates bimetallism and Indian Wars, Washington Territory officials in Seattle are quietly preparing for a federal commission that could reshape the region's economy.
- Seattle’s Early 1878 Council Meetings
Before the skyline, the city was built on ordinances, grain dryers, and the push for a trans-mountain railroad.
- The 'Rat' Printers of Seattle
When an 1877 newspaper attempted to cut costs by firing union compositors, the resulting strike sparked a fierce, public feud between rival publications.