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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1888 | 47 |
| 1889 | 80 |
| 1891 | 32 |
| 1892 | 67 |
| 1893 | 88 |
| 1894 | 110 |
| 1895 | 152 |
576 stories matching addit
- The Building Boom of 1889: Seattle’s Rapid Transformation
A look at the official building permits issued in May 1889, documenting the surge of brick and frame construction that was reshaping the city just weeks before the Great Seattle Fire.
- Renton Addition Buyers Include Railway and Hotel Leaders
As Seattle boomed, property developers promised exclusivity and rapid growth in the newly promoted Renton Addition, setting the stage for a city-wide expansion that would redefine the skyline.
- The Bogus 'Happy Valley' Real Estate Scam
A swindler in Fairhaven has been selling plots in a 'Happy Valley' addition that exists only on paper and a mountain.
- The Great Seattle Tax Delinquency List
A vast, published ledger of delinquent property owners across Seattle's emerging neighborhoods exposes the precariousness of early land ownership.
- The Great Delinquent Tax Sale of 1888
A sweeping list of hundreds of 'Unknown Owners' and Seattle residents facing the auction block, revealing the precarious nature of early land speculation in the city.
- The Gentrification of North Seattle: A 1889 Land Grab
Capitalists from Nebraska descend on the growing city, clearing forty acres on the Queen Anne plateau to turn wilderness into a 'fine addition' for profit.
- The West Seattle Gold Rush: How a Quarter-Mile of Waterfront Changed the City's Map
While miners chased gold in Okanogan and politicians debated Indian reservations, a new addition called 'West Seattle' was platted with water front lots for as little as $75, promising to beat all other additions.
- A Close Encounter in the Ridgedale Addition
A carriage ride turns tense when a black bear crosses the road near the city's edge.
- Queen Anne Addition Advertised 420 Water-View Lots
Developers pitch the 'Queen Anne Second Addition' with lofty promises of salt-water views, rapid transit, and colossal fortunes for the savvy investor.
- The Real Estate 'Boom' of 1889
As Seattle sprawled rapidly during the late 19th century, land speculators flooded the newspapers with ads promising prime lots on the city's hills, shaping the geography of a growing metropolis.
- The Real Estate Boom at Ronton Addition
Investors and business leaders scramble to buy into Seattle's rapid expansion.
- The Boom-Time Promises of Seattle’s 'Most Popular Addition'
In the spring of 1891, real estate developers peddled the dream of cheap housing and rapid growth along the new James Street car line, a precursor to the century of development that followed.
- Walla Walla Addition Touts Homes Along New Streetcar
Before the boom and bust cycles defined Seattle, developers were already promising the 'best buy' near the new streetcar lines.
- Five Free Cottages Offered With Seattle Building Lots
Developers Kittinger Brothers launch a marketing blitz for their new 'Jackson and Rainier Streets Addition,' complete with a promise to raffle off modern cottages to random lot buyers.
- The Real Estate Gold Rush: How West Seattle’s ‘Cream of the Cream’ Was Sold to the Highest Bidders
In February 1889, developers Fargre and Sander were selling off lots in West Seattle for as little as $25 down, promising fortunes from a plateau that was then little more than mud and ambition.
- The Original Queen Anne Land Rush
An 1889 promotional advertisement offers a rare look into how early developers sold the 'aristocratic' promise of Seattle’s steep topography to land-hungry investors.
- The Phantom Title: How a Dead Man’s Land Became Seattle’s Newest Addition
A bizarre chain of custody involving a deceased San Francisco capitalist, a paralyzed attorney, and a speculator reveals the chaotic legal origins of Burke's Second Addition.
- The 1889 Land Rush for West Seattle
Before the neighborhood was built, land agents were selling the dream of a 'gigantic smelter' and a booming future to investors on the waterfront.
- The 'Small Fortune' Lottery in Early Seattle
A 1888 real estate promotion for Jackson and Rainier streets promised investors not just a home, but a chance at a windfall in a property lottery.
- A Century of Title Confusion
A high-stakes legal battle begins to untangle property deeds in a neighborhood whose identity was lost in a clerical error.
- Seattle's Jackson and Rainier Lots Came With Cottages
In 1888, a massive housing development promised buyers a 'small fortune' by raffling off luxury cottages to lucky land purchasers.
- A Divorce Suit Exposes Brutality—and a Fight Over the House
Mary C. Fisher accused her husband of choking her and tearing her clothes in front of her daughter; she asked the court for a divorce, the house and all the property.
- The Renton Addition Gold Rush
Before the neighborhood existed, Seattle land speculators stoked a frenzy for 'prime' lots along Madison Street, capping sales to prevent a total buyout on the first day.
- The Real Estate Boom of 1888
A look at the frenetic land speculation and building sales in Seattle, as recorded by the city's abstractors during the week of May 1st, 1888.
- The Real Estate Auction That Built Seattle’s First Suburbs
In March 1889, just months after the Great Fire devastated downtown, executors of James Crawford’s estate sold off dozens of city lots in a public auction at Occidental Square. These parcels would become the foundation for neighborhoods like Judkins and Bellevue.