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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1889 | 3 |
| 1891 | 2 |
| 1892 | 1 |
| 1894 | 1 |
| 1895 | 6 |
13 stories matching durabl
- Seattle's Streets Were Made of Wood. The Fight to Pave Them Was On.
A City Council vote for brick on Pike Street signaled the end of makeshift plank roads—if Seattle could stomach the first cost.
- City Leaders Accused of Sewer Scandal
Seattle's Board of Public Works is under fire for alleged mismanagement, incompetence, and waste during the city's massive sewer construction projects.
- The End of the First Coal Bunker on the Pacific Coast
After thirty-four years, the historic Bellingham Bay coal bunkers are being dismantled, marking the close of the region's first industrial era.
- The 'Daisy' of the Office: Seattle's 1891 Typewriter Craze
As Seattle transitioned into a new era of business efficiency in 1891, the Remington Standard Typewriter emerged as the essential office status symbol.
- The City Stops the Build: Seattle's 1889 Fight Over 'Fireproof' Tent-Frames
When D.K. Baxter tried to erect three structures made of pipe frames and canvas on Yesler Avenue, the city inspector shut him down, triggering a tense legal stand-off over what constitutes a safe building.
- The Miracle Metal of the Future
An 1889 report speculates on the dawn of the 'Aluminum Age,' predicting a world transformed by the lightweight, non-tarnishing wonder metal.
- Seattle’s Streets Were Still Mostly Wood—Until the Brick Came
With 750 miles platted and only 106 improved, city engineers pushed permanent pavement on Union Street and dreamed of brick from local clay.
- The Navy’s Checklist: Why Seattle Was Betting Its Future on Iron and Timber
In January 1902, the city compiled a massive dossier of industrial advantages—from Denny Mine ore to fresh-water wharves—to convince Washington D.C. that Seattle was the only logical site for a new Pacific naval station.
- The Great Hose Heist: How a Seattle Fire Department Was Almost Scammed by a New York Manufacturer
A peculiar dispute over fire equipment reveals the cutthroat world of late-19th-century municipal procurement, where agents played cities against manufacturers and warrants were used as currency.
- The Clay Under Seattle Built a Million-Dollar Industry
King County clay works turned local deposits into firebrick, paving brick, sewer pipe and architectural terra cotta—winning federal tests and employing hundreds of men.
- Seattle’s Post-Panic Pep Talk: Canals, Steel and Paved Streets
On New Year’s Day 1895, Seattle’s mayor and aldermen promised economy, railroad terminals and a Lake Washington canal—and insisted the Panic of 1893 was finally fading.
- A Legislative Committee Finds the University of Washington Packed, Broke, and Worth Building
After touring the cramped old campus and the rising new grounds between Lake Union and Lake Washington, a joint legislative committee urges bonds, more books, a smaller board of regents, and a dry zone around the university.
- The Forest Empire That Built Washington
A sweeping 1900 survey of the state's lumber industry counted billions of feet of standing timber, 250 sawmills, and $7 million a year in wages—proof that the trees, not the cities, came first.