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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1888 | 2 |
| 1889 | 7 |
| 1891 | 5 |
| 1892 | 2 |
| 1893 | 4 |
| 1894 | 3 |
| 1895 | 1 |
24 stories matching core
- The Paving of Second Street
A pivotal public works project in 1889 captures a city in the midst of rapid transformation.
- The High Price of Labor
A former city officer turned laborer is critically injured in a sewer trench collapse near the downtown core.
- The Dream of the Suburban Garden Plot
Developers in 1891 sold city dwellers on the 'choicest' acreages just outside of the developing Seattle core, promising a life of suburban gardens along the new Rainier Avenue electric line.
- The Seattle Building Boom of 1892
A record-breaking month of construction permits signals a massive wave of development in the downtown core.
- Chamber of Commerce Fights to Keep its Restaurant
Seattle's business elite debates the merits of maintaining a members-only dining room while scouting for a new headquarters in the rapidly shifting downtown core.
- The War on the Wharf-Eating Teredo
After five years of experimentation, a Seattle developer discovers that creosoted piles are the only way to save the city's waterfront from the voracious wood-boring mollusk.
- 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.
- The Bakeman Block Consumed in Snohomish
A pre-dawn inferno destroys the downtown commercial core, barely sparing city records from the collapse.
- The Price of Progress on Second and Marion
A lucrative real estate flip on a prominent corner reveals the rapid transformation of Seattle’s downtown core.
- The Great Northern's Building Boom
New bricks and stone are transforming the downtown core as the Great Northern Railway’s arrival spurs a flurry of commercial construction.
- Mutiny Averted Aboard the Cutter Grant
A new recruit refuses to drill, but the crew’s rapid display of loyalty convinces their captain of their patriotism.
- The 'Ram's Horn' Waterfront Fight
A landmark court battle over railroad right-of-ways and the city's power to control its streets against corporate expansion.
- Seattle Council Accused in 1889 Tide Land Dispute
Tensions boil over at the Washington State Constitutional Convention as delegates clash over who owns the city’s waterfront—the people or the speculators.
- Longshoremen Wage Battle at the Docks
Tensions boil over as the Pacific Coast Steamship Company attempts to slash wages and break the power of the longshoremen's union.
- After the Great Fire: Seattle Rebuilds from Ashes
Following the devastating 1889 fire that leveled the city’s business district, residents and business owners scramble to reorganize amidst the ruins of the downtown core.
- The Banking Titans Building Modern Seattle
A look inside the financial engine driving Seattle’s rapid expansion in the early 1890s through the lens of a newly rising financial institution.
- Seattle Rebuilds After the Great Fire
One week after the Great Seattle Fire of 1889, the city pivots from emergency relief to a massive, coordinated reconstruction of the downtown core.
- The Great Squatter Takeover of 1891
A landmark court ruling in Tacoma triggered a chaotic, overnight land grab as hundreds of squatters claimed property near the city's residential core.
- Rising from the Ashes: The Great Seattle Fire of 1888
While the downtown core smoldered, Seattle citizens gathered in the courthouse—lit by tallow dips—to demand a modern city of brick and stone, rejecting makeshift wooden shacks and dreaming of a reconstructed metropolis.
- The Tide Line War: Who Owns the Water?
A judge in Tacoma settles a bitter dispute over waterfront property, ruling that private owners can only claim land up to the high-tide mark—leaving the rest for the state and public use.
- The Great Timber Land Swindle: How Seattle’s Elite Claimed Farmable Soil as Forest
A federal commissioner rules that the lands held by Bailey and Hawley are actually fertile agricultural soil, not timber land, overturning decades of speculative entries in the Samish Lake district.
- The Mine That Wasn’t? A Captain Denies a Half-Million-Dollar Gold Swindle
An English capitalist’s suit against Alaska millionaires turned a Port Townsend sailing into a Pacific Coast sensation, with charges of swapped ore, gold-soaked drill cores, and a forceful denial from Capt. James Carroll.
- 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.
- The Railroad Contractor Who Thought He Could Boss the Republican Party
Nelson Bennett's Tacoma Ledger refused to back John H. McGraw and the state Republican ticket after a canal fight. A Pierce County senator told the party to stand by the convention—and warned that one wealthy man was not bigger than the party.