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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1888 | 31 |
| 1889 | 74 |
| 1891 | 34 |
| 1892 | 106 |
| 1893 | 158 |
| 1894 | 118 |
| 1895 | 139 |
660 stories matching block
- After the Great Fire, Tull Built Bigger
A Spokane furniture merchant lost a new bank building in the 1889 blaze, then rebuilt at Riverside and Stevens with the city's largest block.
- 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.
- 1889 Spokane Falls Fire Destroys Nearly Forty Blocks
A catastrophic fire destroys thirty blocks of Spokane's business district, echoing the recent destruction in Seattle.
- The Dream of a 'Solid Block': Seattle's Early Real Estate Ambitions
Prominent business owners in late 19th-century Seattle collaborate to replace fragmented shops with a singular, uniform 'splendid block' of stone and steel, signaling the city's transition from pioneer town to burgeoning metropolis.
- Vandals Target Seattle Shingle Mills Amid Labor Unrest
Striking shingle weavers are suspected of sabotage at the Stimson and Cedar Lumber Company mills, marking a tense escalation in local labor disputes.
- Domestic Violence Case in the Shorey Block
A plumber living in the Shorey Block is fined $25 for beating his wife, despite the witness turning hostile.
- Children Fight to Reclaim Property Sold by Their Father
After their mother died, the heirs of the Wist estate allege their father illegally sold their share of family lands to local investors.
- The Rapid Transformation of Pioneer Square
A weekly ledger of building permits reveals a city under construction, capturing the final boom years before the Great Seattle Fire of 1889.
- The Transformation of the Butler Block
A historic Seattle landmark is being converted into a modern hotel, promising the latest in electric light and steam heat.
- Great Northern Moves to Seize Downtown Blocks
The expanding railway network files suit to condemn an entire city block, displacing residents and businesses in the Whitechapel district.
- Tragedy at the Baxter Block
A 5-year-old boy falls to his death from the third-story porch of a residential block at Yesler and Fifth.
- A Million-Dollar Land Grab and the Wife Left Behind
Abandoned for ten years in Pennsylvania, Mrs. J. E. Jordan comes to Seattle's superior court to stop her husband from deeding away the community's real estate to a medicine company — and names the men who helped him do it.
- The Money Lenders Take Another Spokane Block
A foreclosure suit on the Kaele block reveals a family that paid nearly $11,000 in interest — and still stands to lose the property to a Dutch mortgage bank.
- The Portrait Scheme Scam
A group of Seattle women are out money after an elusive photography company vanishes from the Epler Block.
- A Noon Fire Erased Sequim's Pioneer Block
A stove accident destroyed a hotel and the Pioneer Block—including a bank, druggist and city council room—with losses over $10,000.
- The Power Struggle Over Pavement
Tacoma's city council faces internal deadlock as officials fight over who gets to countersign checks and which material should pave the city streets.
- Seattle's First Real Street Paving
A specimen half-block is laid on Commercial Street as a test to end the era of plank roads and mud.
- Eastern Capitalists Bet Big on Seattle's Future
A Boston bank president purchases a half-block of prime downtown Seattle real estate for a major business development.
- A Failed Arson Attempt in Everett
A mysterious fuse and a kerosene-soaked room threatened a downtown business block.
- Beacon Hill's Streetcar Gap: Children Walk Miles While the Company Stalls
Residents petition the aldermen to force the Union Trunk Line to run cars to its promised terminus.
- Voters Shoot Down High School Bond
A combination of Populists, skeptical taxpayers, and general voter apathy results in the defeat of a $125,000 high school bond for Capitol Hill.
- The Day Ellensburg Burned to the Ground
A devastating blaze in 1889 consumed fourteen blocks of the young city's business district, leaving merchants and residents in ruins.
- The Tinderbox City: How Unprotected Seattle Lived in Fear of Fire
While the downtown core grew rapidly, many residential districts remained dangerously isolated from fire protection, leaving property owners in a literal state of vulnerability.
- Seattle Rising: The Blocks Going Up Where the Fire Burned
Dexter Horton & Co. reopens on the same corner it held before the great fire, as new brick blocks, houses and excavations push out across the young city.
- Fifteen Minutes and the Whole Town Core Was Gone
A flue fire in the Hotel Sedro kitchen took the Pioneer Block with it — the council chambers, the bank, the druggist and the newspaper, all in one afternoon.