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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1889 | 2 |
| 1891 | 4 |
| 1892 | 1 |
| 1893 | 8 |
| 1894 | 5 |
| 1895 | 11 |
31 stories matching normal
- The Governor’s Veto and the State’s Looming Deficit
Governor McGraw slashes funding for two new normal schools, citing a constitutional mandate to keep the state's spending within its revenue.
- The Fight to Keep Cheney Normal School Open
Students petition Governor McGraw to honor their contract with the state after the institution faces closure due to budget cuts.
- The Legislature’s Endgame: Normal Schools Funded, a Central Board Killed
With ten days left, Washington lawmakers passed money for Cheney and Whatcom normal schools, killed a plan to consolidate state institutions, and left Cascade railroad routes in doubt.
- The Battle for Education Funding
Seattle school officials rally against state legislature 'land-booming' schemes that prioritize local property interests over the needs of students.
- The 'Educational Park' That Never Was
When Seattle’s public school superintendent proposed turning the old University of Washington site into a grand, permanent hub for the city’s schools and library, he called it his 'iridescent dream.'
- The Lumber Price-Fixing Scandal
A Tacoma lumber mill combine has been caught artificially inflating the price of city contracts.
- The Normal School Was Cleared. The Unpaid Workers Weren’t.
A legislative committee investigating the Ellensburg Normal School found no corruption among trustees—only changed plans, discounted emergency scrip, and laborers left chasing a contractor.
- The Unexplained Death of a Millman
A healthy man collapses in a Seattle office building, but two autopsies fail to reveal why.
- The Governor’s Pen and the Missing Partner
Governor McGraw prepares to slash the state budget while a political souvenir publisher flees Olympia with his partner's cash.
- The Proposed 'Professor of Maternity'
A state legislator introduces a bill to create a 'Chair of Maternity' at the University of Washington, aiming to instruct female students in the 'duties of motherhood.'
- The Strange Death of Peter Stanup
A Puyallup man is found dead in the river, but a medical examiner’s autopsy suggests a violent neck injury rather than drowning, fueling rumors of a political conspiracy.
- The Minstrel Show of High Society
Tacoma’s social elite perform in blackface for charity, reflecting the normalized racial appropriation of the 1890s.
- Ellensburg's New Normal School Opens on the Hill
Ellensburg's new State Normal School opened to students, a brick-and-stone landmark with a gymnasium, auditorium, electric lights, and a rare surplus left in the building fund.
- A Frontier Education: The Struggles of Washington's Early Schools
State Superintendent R.B. Bryan reflects on the chaotic, underfunded, and record-sparse beginnings of Washington’s school system.
- Harry Fraser Took a Bullet at the Northern Hotel—Then Seattle Defended His Name
A shooting in a hotel bar left one man wounded and another in jail, but the loudest fight the next day was over a rumor about the victim.
- Olympia Adjourns: Reform Bills Pass, but Railroad Rate Relief Dies
Washington’s 1893 legislature closes in a rush of land, school, tax, and institution bills—while the Senate refuses to cut freight rates for Eastern Washington wheat growers.
- The Rapid Rise of a City from the Ashes
After a devastating fire nearly destroyed Spokane, the community bypassed despair, opting instead for an immediate, high-velocity reconstruction effort that saw the city rising before the smoke had even cleared.
- A Mock Legislature and a Midnight Meltdown in Olympia
In the final hours of Washington's 1893 session, lawmakers cut a railroad freight rate, fought over a harbor commission, and staged a mock legislature as the clock struck midnight.
- A Saw Cut Through His Brain. Seattle Doctors Watched Him Live.
Horatio Stetson's head was nearly split in two by a rip saw at a Seattle mill. Thirty-six hours later, he was talking, moving his limbs, and astonishing the physicians at Providence Hospital.
- A Senate Seat, a Caucus, and a Yakima Ditch Deal
In Olympia, Republicans moved to settle the U.S. Senate contest between Ankeny and Wilson—while opponents circulated a story that Wilson had traded a Congressional favor for stock in a Yakima irrigation scheme.
- The Pullman Strike Collapses — and Seattle Quietly Comes Out Clean
As the great railroad strike of 1894 sputters to defeat nationwide, the Post-Intelligencer pauses to credit Seattle's police and strike leaders for keeping the city free of the violence that scarred the rest of the country.
- Press-Intelligencer Backs Public Ownership of Seattle Wharf
A 1889 editorial argues that city ownership of the Seattle waterfront is the only way to save producers from the 'double-tax' of private warehousing.
- The Boy Mayor of Seattle
Harry White rose from an Iowa farm to become the youngest, most energetic architect of Seattle's rapid post-fire expansion.
- The Last-Day Bill Rush—and a Women’s Suffrage Amendment
Washington’s Senate introduced dozens of measures on the final day of bill introduction, from railroad assessments and a company-store ban to a referendum on votes for women.
- Olympia Cut Salaries and School Terms to Survive the Panic of 1893
Facing depression, Washington’s capital city slashed official pay, shortened the school year to six months, and bet on harbor work and a new capitol to pull itself out.