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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1859 | 1 |
| 1860 | 2 |
| 1861 | 1 |
| 1865 | 1 |
| 1871 | 1 |
| 1872 | 2 |
| 1876 | 17 |
| 1877 | 6 |
| 1878 | 10 |
| 1879 | 3 |
| 1880 | 5 |
| 1882 | 2 |
| 1883 | 12 |
| 1884 | 6 |
| 1885 | 14 |
| 1886 | 5 |
| 1887 | 7 |
| 1888 | 10 |
| 1889 | 22 |
| 1890 | 6 |
| 1891 | 17 |
| 1892 | 51 |
| 1893 | 38 |
| 1894 | 34 |
| 1895 | 28 |
| 1897 | 4 |
| 1898 | 11 |
| 1899 | 15 |
| 1903 | 25 |
| 1904 | 29 |
| 1905 | 3 |
| 1908 | 9 |
| 1909 | 35 |
| 1910 | 2 |
| 1911 | 3 |
| 1912 | 4 |
| 1914 | 9 |
| 1915 | 10 |
| 1916 | 16 |
| 1917 | 5 |
| 1918 | 3 |
| 1923 | 2 |
| 1924 | 3 |
489 stories matching clean
- The Great Tacoma Spring Cleaning
Mayor Linck threatens arrests as the city scrambles to scrub up before an upcoming exposition.
- A Filthy Milk Trial, a Lenient Judge, and a Convention's Disgust
The state dairy commissioner lost his Tacoma case against two milkmen whose cows were caked in manure — and the delegates wanted to know what kind of milk the judge kept on his own table.
- A Close Call in the Cleaning Room
A gasoline explosion at a Kennewick dry-cleaning shop reminds residents of the dangers lurking in their businesses.
- The Sea of Mud on Main Street
Walla Walla's main thoroughfare has been rendered nearly impassable, prompting calls for a permanent street cleaning department.
- The Disgraceful State of Our Streets
Walla Walla's main thoroughfares have devolved into 'pig sties' of mud, and the city must fix drainage and maintenance before wasting money on new pavement.
- The Struggle to Keep Seattle Clean in 1888
As Seattle prepared for a massive influx of tourists for a summer celebration, one citizen publicly shamed the city's leadership for allowing its streets to remain a cluttered, hazardous mess of construction debris.
- A Close Call at the Cleaning Shop
Static electricity turns a routine cleaning job into a dangerous fire, destroying a local shop's equipment and wardrobe.
- A Sanitary Sermon for Kennewick
City Health Officer F.M. Crosby issues a biblical-style list of ten ordinances to combat filth and disease.
- The Art of Keeping Clean Swine
A century and a half ago, local hog farmers were advised on the strict management of breeding and hygiene to improve their stock.
- The Ex-Chief's Last Stand
After his firing, Seattle’s police chief J.C. Mitchell fired back against Mayor Moran and the City Council, exposing a city hall scandal involving alleged gambling kickbacks and corrupt 'star chamber' politics.
- Tacoma Mayoral Race Centers on Clean Government
As the mayoral race heats up, the local press weighs in on the divide between a 'closed' city and the advocates for a wider-open town.
- A Night at the St. Charles Hotel
A local journalist's late-night attempt to 'clean out' a hotel leads to a public brawl and a courtroom spectacle.
- The City of Mud and Broken Promises
Business owners in Walla Walla are demanding the city address the 'execrable' state of downtown crosswalks, suggesting that hiring unemployed men to clean them is both a public service and an economic necessity.
- Walla Walla Residents Demand Relief From Muddy Streets
An editorial calls for a city street-cleaning department and paved or graveled roads to address months of muddy, impassable streets.
- A Deadly Slip in the Window Cleaning Trade
A single workman faces severe, possibly life-threatening injuries after a window frame pulled away from a house on 12th Street.
- The War Department Drafted the Newspaper Editor
Washington picked the Courier-Reporter to run the national 'Smileage' coupon drive in the Kennewick district — and the high school's Senior Ten volunteered to sell the books at the Finley store and the Hover post office.
- Everett's First Annual City Cleanup
After a successful city-wide 'Clean-up' day, local editors urge residents and businesses to maintain pride in their streets year-round.
- Judge Chambers’s New Mill Turns New Dungeness Wheat Into ‘Superb’ Flour
A newspaper tour of the just-finished grist mill found machinery ‘complete in every particular’ and a cleaning apparatus that astonished the visitors.
- A Swedish Immigrant Built Seattle's Clean-Milk Dairy One Gallon of Cream at a Time
Alfred Kristoferson arrived to find a booming city where cream came watery and milk carried disease. His answer — pasteurization, doorstep delivery, and a health officer's endorsement — became a one-man public-health campaign.
- Tacoma's Women Take On the Bakers Over Wrapped Bread
A committee of pure-food reformers and a dozen bakers squared off before the city council's health committee over an ordinance requiring bread be wrapped — with more than 1,000 women enlisted behind the fight.
- The Stolen Sunday Best
A university student's religious profession wasn't enough to curb his envy for his roommate's wardrobe.
- The Great Seattle Street-Cleaning Decree
A desperate 1888 city ordinance threatens property owners with fines if they fail to scrub the filth from their sidewalk frontages.
- Seattle’s 1895 Co-op Where 150 Unemployed Men Ate for 7 Cents a Day
At a Belltown barracks, unemployed single men pooled their wages, submitted to military-style rules and fed an average of 150 people daily for about 7 cents each.
- They Promised Clean Bunks and Good Food. The Sailors Knew Better.
At a longshoremen's meeting in Tacoma, a delegate described how ship's officers lured landsmen aboard with false promises — and told of a sailor who drowned swimming for shore rather than sail on the Henry Failing.
- Snoqualmie Falls: The Dawn of Clean Energy in Seattle
A century before the green energy transition, the city’s early industry turned away from coal and toward the 'falling waters' of Snoqualmie to power a growing metropolis.
Also about this, in other words
- The Coulee City Clean-Up
A judge orders a local man to be forcibly scrubbed after being declared a public nuisance.
- The Fight for Clean Bread in Tacoma
Tacoma women mobilize to push a city sanitation ordinance through the council, battling bakers who claim wrapping bread is too expensive and technically impossible.
- The Dirty Truth Behind Everett’s Kitchens
The Civic League exposes unsanitary conditions in local hotels and cafes, sparking a call for strict health inspections and public accountability.
- The Fight for Sanitary Food
Tacoma’s club women are spearheading a radical new ordinance to force bakeries and food merchants to meet strict hygiene standards.
- The City Hall Clean Sweep
Mayor Ronald's municipal 'reforms' see a swift firing of city staff to make room for Democratic appointees.
- The Price of a Filthy City
In 1877, Seattle editors warned that stagnant water and neglected gutters were more than just a nuisance—they were a matter of life and death.
- The Rag, the Belt and the Flywheel: A Laundry Hand's Bad Monday
Ray Strong was wiping an engine belt he had no business touching when the cloth whipped him into a spinning flywheel. He was alive, unconscious at times, and the whole town was counting on his 'strong vitality.'
- The Fight for Clean Water in Parkland
City officials take aim at sanitation hazards at Parkland College that have been contaminating the local water supply.