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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1888 | 2 |
| 1889 | 3 |
| 1891 | 1 |
| 1892 | 2 |
| 1893 | 3 |
| 1894 | 7 |
| 1895 | 4 |
22 stories matching boon
- The Looming Bottleneck: Seattle’s Growing Pains in 1888
An architect’s urgent warning to city leaders echoes through time: invest in infrastructure now, or pay ten times the cost later.
- The Professionalization of Seattle Architecture
A call for ethical standards in an era of rapid, often shoddy construction, as Seattle architects move to join the American Institute of Architects.
- The Madam, the Capitalist, and the Broken Door
Lou Graham, who ran a South Fourth Street brothel, swore out a warrant against a wealthy Seattle capitalist after a drunken spree ended with a slap—and a quiet cover-up.
- The Ballard Y.M.C.A. Rebels Against Seattle
After the city association attempted to dissolve the Ballard branch, residents rallied to save the reading rooms from the saloons.
- The Battle for the Navy Yard: Port Orchard vs. Lake Washington
A naval commission has officially recommended Port Orchard as the future site for a navy yard, but local boosters of Lake Washington aren't giving up, citing fresh water anchorage and commercial synergy.
- The Sudden End of a Colorful Pioneer Judge
Isaac M. Hall, a celebrated attorney and former probate judge, collapses in a saloon after a long night of reciting poetry and debate.
- Mrs. Gatzert's Kindergarten to Open Among the Pear Trees
A memorial kindergarten funded by Mrs. Bailey Gatzert will open this fall, featuring a design by a renowned expert and a promise to spare a beloved pear tree.
- A Damning Report on Seattle's Water Works
A Chamber of Commerce committee found a hastily built municipal water system, political patronage and missing maps—and urged Seattle to hire a professional engineer at $5,000 a year.
- Seattle’s Water Fight: Pumping Queen Anne or Building for the Future
As Seattle’s reservoirs strain, Superintendent Andrew Jackson argues that waste, not supply, is the problem—and that the city’s pumping system is only a stopgap until a Cedar River gravity plan can be built.
- The City That Built Itself: Seattle’s Boastful Declaration of Independence
On the Fourth of July in 1888, The Post-Intelligencer published a massive editorial celebrating Seattle’s explosive growth, claiming it had 'doubled its population and quadrupled its business' while fiercely defending its economic survival against federal trade policies.
- Tacoma Bets Its Future on a Giant Interstate Fair
In August 1891, Governor McGraw urged every county to send exhibits as Tacoma raced to open a fair that promised to fill hotels, showcase the Northwest, and put the city on the map.
- Seattle Merchants Rally to Keep the Tariff on Coal and Lumber
Meeting at the Chamber of Commerce, business men draft a memorial to Congress warning that free trade in lumber and coal will hand the Northwest's timber trade to British Columbia—then vote to put the whole fight off another week.
- The Senator Who Came for the Canal
A visiting New Hampshire senator tours the route of the proposed Lake Washington canal, charms the Chamber of Commerce, and promises his vote — while predicting Seattle will one day rival the great ports of the world.
- Seattle Newsboys Take Tacoma by Storm
A pack of Seattle newsboys descends on the Interstate Fair, jeers a non-union print shop, climbs the roofs, and eats Chilberg’s restaurant out of house and home.
- The Man Who Couldn't Be Named: A Mysterious Suicide on Pike Street
In the early hours of a Seattle morning in 1902, a barkeeper discovers a stranger dead in his room with no ID and a note addressed to 'Joe.' The city is left with a body, a mystery, and a morphine bottle.
- The Senator’s Farewell: Mrs. Squire’s Lobby Battle and a Pledge to 'All the People'
As Watson Squire prepares to leave Seattle for Washington D.C., his wife recounts the chaotic reality of their election victory at the Olympia hotel, while he pledges impartial service to the entire state.
- The Real Estate Broker’s Pink Wedding: A Seattle Socialite’s Grand Entrance
In January 1895, C.H. Kittinger, a prominent local real estate broker, announced his engagement to Miss Whitney of Montreal at an elaborate reception on Fifth and Columbia streets, signaling the height of Seattle's Gilded Age social scene.
- The Tacoma Gold Rush That Was Salted With Quicksilver
A mining journal exposes how placer claims on Tacoma school land turned a public trust into a speculative jackpot—complete with imported gold, alleged bribery, and a land office that kept saying yes.
- Wild Goose Bill: The Frontier Ferryman Who Kept a Free Boat for the Poor
A Washington paper remembers W. H. Condon, a 68-year-old pioneer whose free Columbia River ferry, homemade roads and violent past made him a local legend.
- The Legislators Who Came to See a Ditch—and Left Believers
A steamboat tour of Smith Cove and Lake Union turns Eastern Washington lawmakers into ship-canal converts.
- A Michigan Orator Packs the Armory and Rides Down the Populists
Roswell G. Horr brings the Republican gospel of protection and sound money to a standing-room crowd in Seattle — and turns the free-silver men in the hall into the evening's comedy act.
- Trapped by the Tide on the Road to Queets
In 1892, poet Herbert Bashford joined a camping party for a walk up Washington’s wild Olympic coast—and found the rising tide more dangerous than any highwayman.