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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1876 | 3 |
| 1878 | 3 |
| 1883 | 3 |
| 1885 | 1 |
| 1886 | 1 |
| 1889 | 3 |
| 1890 | 1 |
| 1891 | 3 |
| 1892 | 6 |
| 1893 | 3 |
| 1894 | 11 |
| 1895 | 6 |
| 1898 | 1 |
| 1903 | 3 |
| 1904 | 1 |
| 1908 | 1 |
| 1909 | 1 |
| 1923 | 1 |
52 stories matching closet
- The Rat in the Wardrobe
A lady’s attempt to light a dark closet leads to a terrifying, fire-starting encounter with a persistent rodent.
- The Sanitary Crisis of 1885
Dr. J. M. W. Hedges demands immediate action on open cesspools, raw sewage, and the 'lodging house' filth threatening the health of early Seattle.
- Seattle Unveils State-of-the-Art Pacific School
A look inside the new $43,000 brick schoolhouse featuring gymnasiums, 'dry' closets, and advanced ventilation.
- The Great Escape: Two Prisoners Vanish from Seattle’s Basement Jail
In a display of audacity and desperation, two men held on smuggling and liquor charges crawled through a torn-off board in a water closet to flee the U.S. Marshal’s improvised prison beneath the Clancy Building.
- A Convict Hangs Himself at McNeil's Island — and No One Comes for Him
Charles Carlson, forty, serving eight months for selling whisky to Indians at North Yakima, is found hanging in a water-closet at the federal penitentiary. The warden cuts him down minutes too late.
- The School Sanitation Standoff
A looming confrontation between Seattle’s Health Officer and the School Board over dry-closet systems risks the arrest of the school secretary.
- Seattle Picks Up the Hammer: A Kindergarten, a Church and a Dozen New Homes
With confidence returning after the hard times, builders break ground on the Bailey Gatzert free kindergarten at Twelfth and Norman, finish a German church at Tenth and Stewart, and raise modern homes from Queen Anne to the south side.
- Spokane Falls Bets on a Grand New Schoolhouse
After voters approved a special tax, trustees bought a block at the south end of Howard Street and hired an architect and builder for a two-story frame school.
- The Jailhouse Drinker of Tenino
A clever prisoner manages to steal a gallon of whiskey while locked in a closet by using a funnel and his own fingers.
- A Sudden Death at the Masonic Temple
A janitor who kept the furnaces running at the Second and Pike building dies quietly while at his post.
- The Battle for School Sanitation
A bitter feud erupts between Seattle's school board and the board of health over the safety of 'dry closet' systems in public classrooms.
- The Dynamite Fiend of Oilman: A Lynch Mob’s Tragic Mistake
When a violent feud in King County’s coal fields ended in a massacre, the community turned to vigilante justice. But when they hanged the wrong man, the real killer walked free.
- The Fake Postal Inspector Who Robbed the Great Northern — and Got Away With Less Than $5
A bogus federal inspector bound two mail clerks, rifled registered pouches, and slipped off the Oriental Limited at Spokane, leaving Newport authorities to piece together a brazen, almost profitless heist.
- The Man Who Laughed Through the Flames: A Snohomish Tragedy of Love and Loss
When a gas leak ignited his home in Fruitland, Washington, Chandler Chandler didn't run for safety—he shielded his wife from the blast. His subsequent conversation with the doctor reveals a stoicism that defies belief.
- The Six Who Vanished: Tacoma’s Senatorial Scandal and the Art of Political Silence
In the wake of a bitter Washington State Senate race, the six key allies of defeated candidate Judge Calkins have disappeared from public view, leaving behind a trail of bribery allegations and a furious debate over whether the election was stolen or won by superior strategy.
- A Missing Man, a Dead Wife, and a Sewing Machine Full of Money
Joseph Von Lingenau vanished after his wife died in childbirth. His friends fear murder; his neighbors remember a man coming apart.
- Tales of Torture at McNeil Island Penitentiary
A newly released prisoner brings harrowing allegations of medical neglect, forced labor, and death to the attention of Seattle officials.
- The Tragedy at the Marion Street Rooming House
A discarded lover murders a popular music teacher in her home before turning his gun on himself, leaving her two children orphaned.
- The Bloody Hammer and the Brewer's Wife
Seattle prosecutors rest their murder case against Craemer after a courtroom day of fire, hidden gold, and a suspect whose hands shook at the sight of the weapon.
- A $10,000 Railroad Check and a Whispering Campaign in Olympia
In 1895, Washington's legislature gathered to choose a U.S. senator, and the Seattle press heard that the Southern Pacific had put $10,000 behind one candidate.
- He Loved Her Too Much to Marry Her
Adam Gehm, a Bavarian logger working in Carbonado, shot himself in a Seattle lodging house after confessing to a friend that illness left him unable to provide for the woman he loved. He had tried once before.
- The Rainier Avenue Electric Railway Sold for a Song
After years of litigation and financial struggle, the Rainier Avenue line is auctioned off at the courthouse, leaving the identity of the true buyer in question.
- Seattle’s 'Black Hole of Calcutta' Condemned
A scathing health department report labels the city jail a public danger, citing extreme overcrowding and poor ventilation.
- The Shame of the King County Jail
A scathing report from a grand jury reveals a 'standing disgrace' where prisoners are packed into windowless cells and the county government operates in squalid, cramped quarters.
- The Tragedy of an Obsessive Pursuit
A Scandinavian immigrant's obsessive courtship in Tacoma turns violent, ending in a police manhunt and a quiet deal to exile the suitor.
Also about this, in other words
- The Price of a Pioneer Wardrobe
A look at the retail landscape in 1886 Seattle, where department stores were the primary civic meeting grounds and symbols of progress.
- The Mystery of the 'Man in Woman's Clothes'
A queer identity case arrives at the Seattle Police Court, as a person arrested for cross-dressing faces a judge and a courtroom full of skepticism.
- The Thief Who Stole the Wrong Suitcase
A burglar targeting a North Yakima Avenue home made off with a suitcase, only to find the contents were not quite what he expected.
- The Great Snohomish Trunk Heist
When two 'dudish' young merchants tried to skip town without paying their boarding house bill, the landlord intervened with a classic confrontation.
- The Day Seattle’s Dudes Learned to Crease Their Trousers
A royal fashion blunder in New York trickled down to Seattle’s menswear stores, forever changing how local men pressed their slacks.
- The Bankruptcy Fire Sale of 1891
A failed clothing enterprise on the corner of 2nd and Washington puts its remaining stock under the gavel as the assignee clears the shelves.
- The Great Blaine Trousers Heist
A group of burglars target a local drug store owner’s home with a very specific, bumbling objective: stealing the guests' pants.
- The 'Dead Line' at the San Francisco Store
Before it became a retail hub, the basement of the San Francisco store in Seattle served as a federal jail where prisoners waited for trial while playing cards and bartering for tobacco.