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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1872 | 2 |
| 1876 | 2 |
| 1877 | 1 |
| 1878 | 6 |
| 1880 | 5 |
16 stories matching shift
- Seattle's Barrel Factory Doubles Its Shifts — 'No Chance for Chinamen There'
The factory near Belltown boosts production to 4,000 barrels a day and hires about a hundred men and boys, all white, in a blunt public statement of racial hiring policy.
- A Deadly Shift in the Coal Mines
A tragic industrial accident at the Newcastle coal mines claims the life of a laborer.
- The Girl Who Had No Birthplace
A tragic drowning at Ilwaco Beach recalls the erasure of a pioneer town by the shifting Cowlitz River.
- Republican Defectors in Duwamish
A political primary in the Duwamish precinct saw a surprising shift, with voters rejecting a Garfield endorsement in a vote that signaled growing political friction in 1880 Seattle.
- The Rising Brick Skyline of Early Seattle
As Schwabacher Brothers prepares a massive new brick warehouse on Commercial Street, the city celebrates its shift from wooden frame town to a permanent commercial hub.
- When Seattle Made Property Owners Pay for Street Grading
An 1878 ordinance reveals the early mechanics of Seattle’s urban development and the 'special assessment' taxes that forced property owners to pay for city street improvements.
- The Widow’s Pension Legal Trap
A woman finds her pension rights threatened by the complex, shifting definitions of marriage under 19th-century law.
- The End of a Printing Era
As the Seattle economy shifts, one of the city's early job printers liquidates his massive wood type collection, marking a quiet close to a chapter of local industry.
- 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 Mayor’s Sidewalk Mandate: Seattle’s First War on Public Infrastructure
In August 1872, Mayor J.T. Jordan issued Ordinance No. 32, forcing property owners on Capitol Hill to build their own sidewalks or face fines—a stark early example of the city shifting infrastructure costs onto private citizens.
- 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 Skagit Harvest Strike of 1878
A radical field hand pens an open letter from the Skagit River flats, decrying a race to the bottom in wages and the 'swine-like' conditions imposed on labor.
- The Workingman's Protest Against Seattle's 'Class Tax'
An early Seattle citizen takes to the press to challenge a municipal licensing ordinance, arguing it unfairly shifts the tax burden from the wealthy onto the backs of laborers.
- The Closing of a Pressroom Era
As the Seattle economy shifts, a local printer liquidates his entire inventory, marking the end of a small-scale business in a growing territory.
- Down the Dark Drift: A Tour of Seattle’s Coal Mines
In December 1876, a reporter takes readers on an arduous journey from Lake Union to Newcastle to witness the grueling labor and industrial scale of Puget Sound's most vital industry.
- The Price of Debt in 1877 Seattle
Foreclosure notices reveal the rapid shift in property ownership as King County land was liquidated at the courthouse steps.