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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1854 | 3 |
| 1858 | 1 |
| 1859 | 1 |
| 1860 | 3 |
| 1861 | 4 |
| 1862 | 6 |
| 1863 | 1 |
| 1864 | 3 |
| 1872 | 12 |
| 1876 | 62 |
| 1877 | 61 |
| 1878 | 59 |
| 1879 | 7 |
| 1880 | 17 |
| 1882 | 15 |
| 1883 | 72 |
| 1884 | 28 |
| 1885 | 60 |
| 1886 | 31 |
| 1887 | 37 |
| 1888 | 26 |
| 1889 | 96 |
| 1890 | 19 |
| 1891 | 88 |
| 1892 | 204 |
| 1893 | 161 |
| 1894 | 140 |
| 1895 | 204 |
| 1897 | 6 |
| 1898 | 20 |
| 1899 | 38 |
| 1900 | 12 |
| 1902 | 2 |
| 1903 | 106 |
| 1904 | 80 |
| 1905 | 19 |
| 1907 | 5 |
| 1908 | 36 |
| 1909 | 120 |
| 1910 | 24 |
| 1911 | 17 |
| 1912 | 6 |
| 1914 | 30 |
| 1915 | 23 |
| 1916 | 57 |
| 1917 | 40 |
| 1918 | 5 |
| 1919 | 1 |
| 1920 | 1 |
| 1922 | 2 |
| 1923 | 20 |
| 1924 | 20 |
| 1925 | 4 |
2,115 stories matching cost
- 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.
- Seattle Rebuilds: Schwabacher Block, Arlington Hotel Lead Construction Surge
Architects unveil plans for new commercial blocks, a school, and hospital expansions as Seattle enters a building frenzy.
- Two Plans, One Spring, and a $25,000 Holdup
Walla Walla's council will let voters choose between a $191,000 pipeline up Mill Creek and a cheaper gravity system at Thomas Springs — but the editor suspects a land speculation scheme is baked into the ballot question.
- Seattle's Bid to Be the Liverpool of America
In 1895, boosters imagined a Lake Washington ship canal turning Puget Sound into a freshwater harbor for world commerce, coal trade, and naval power.
- The Sewer Under Beacon Hill
After quicksand, floods and a costly detour, Seattle’s South Tunnel is weeks from completion—and somehow still inside its $100,000 budget.
- The $3 Million Strike: How the Great Northern Railway Bet on Breaking Workers
In the winter of 1893, the railroad’s board calculated that paying workers less was cheaper than losing millions to a strike. They were right—and Seattle paid the price.
- The Judge Who Warned Seattle Not to Sell Its Waterfront to a Canal Company
In 1894, Judge John J. McGilvra urged Congress to build the Lake Washington Ship Canal and warned that a private company's tideflat scheme would put tolls on the water and enrich speculators at public expense.
- City Hall Showdown: Council and Reformers Clash Over Charter Revision
A heated joint meeting of the city council and civic organizations debates whether to call a special election for a new city charter, with accusations of bullying and claims of wasted taxpayer money.
- A Panic Year Boom: Newport Built Through Hard Times
Despite a national financial panic, Newport added 87 homes, six concrete business blocks, new depots, churches, and a reshaped downtown—proud evidence of a town betting on itself.
- Washington Asked Congress for $34,500 to Finish Carving Up the Colville Reservation
An 1894 dispatch from the capital details the surveying and allotment machinery behind opening the northern Colville Reservation to settlement — right down to the promise that the cost would be repaid 'from the proceeds of the lands when sold.'
- A Valley Drowns Every Spring—and One Farmer Wants a Better Dike
A correspondent warns that the Pend Oreille freshet has wrecked $50,000 worth of Calispel Valley crops—and argues the proposed diking districts are too piecemeal to save the basin.
- The Sidewalk Tax: Who Pays for Seattle’s New Pavement?
City Engineer Thompson reveals the staggering costs of replacing wooden walkways with brick and cement, sparking debate over who will foot the bill for urban improvement.
- The Sheriff’s Gavel: Two Families Lose Their Homes in Snohomish
In March 1877, the Snohomish County Sheriff seized and scheduled the sale of real estate for two different local families to satisfy court judgments, marking a stark moment in the territory's early legal history.
- The Foreclosure Auction: When the Bank Takes Your Land
A Benton County sheriff prepares to sell a farmer's property at the Prosser courthouse for over $1,300 in 1914, highlighting the precarious nature of land ownership during the early days of Washington's agricultural boom.
- Tacoma’s Electric Light War
A private power company accuses the city of selling light below cost to drive it out of business—and of a local editor gagging the story because he runs his own hotel plant.
- State Supreme Court Upholds Lake Washington Canal Contract, Clearing the Way for Tide-Land Transformation
The Washington Supreme Court rules that the Lake Washington Waterway Company's contract to dig a canal and fill tide lands is constitutional, rejecting a landowner's challenge and affirming the state's power to remake the waterfront.
- Minister Ties Columbia River Rapids to Costly Freight
A century and a half ago, Seattle boosters were already plotting to cut Portland out of the regional economy by building a railroad to the interior.
- The Crumbling Promise of Kennewick's Paving
A Walla Walla contractor inspects Kennewick’s failing street improvements and suggests a costly fix to save the city's new oil macadam.
- Kent Farmers Demand the Electric Railway Seattle Promised
A Kent Valley letter-writer says freight costs to Seattle are strangling the valley — and calls out the Rainier electric line to finally reach Renton and Kent.
- Farmer’s Protest: The High Cost of Living
A local columnist breaks down the economic struggle of the Kennewick valley farmer, blaming speculators and Wall Street for the price gap between producers and consumers.
- The Bachelor of South Lake and the One-Dollar Fine
A territorial dispute over a fence escalated into a shooting and a lake-dunking, leading to an unlikely legal entanglement for an elderly hermit.
- Cheaper to Ship Wheat to Liverpool Than to Seattle: An Inland Empire Farmer's Case Against the Railroads
A Whitman County grower tells the Post-Intelligencer that Palouse wheat can be raised for about 30 cents a bushel — and sent 16,000 miles to England for less than the railroad charges to haul it 400 miles to the Sound.
- The Water Department War: Seattle’s Ex-Superintendent Says the City Burned $15,000
W. E. Wilson takes his successor to task over pumping-station costs, missing pipe miles, and a board of public works appointment he calls the reward for fiscal failure.
- The Bell in the Woods: How Seattle Built Its First University
A 34-year anniversary feature on the Territorial University: 48 laborers, $2-a-day wages, lumber from Port Blakely, and an old bell that warned ships in fog and rang for hangings.
- City Council Weighs Engineer's Mill Creek Water Plan
A new proposal for a gravity water system faces heavy criticism for its staggering cost and potential legal entanglements over water rights.
Also about this, in other words
- The Price of a Local Dispute: A One-Dollar Verdict
In the small, litigious world of early Seattle, a courtroom battle over an unspecified grievance concludes with a verdict that barely covers the cost of the ink to record it.
- The Price of a Bed and Board: A Snohomish Debt Struggle
A legal summons filed in 1878 highlights the precarious financial lives of territorial residents, revealing how the basic cost of survival—rent and provisions—could swiftly result in litigation.
- The Price of a Vote: Seattle’s 1884 Election Costs
A look back at the surprisingly high cost of democracy in early Seattle, where administrative overhead, printing, and legal red tape turned local elections into a financial burden for the growing town.
- The Price of Justice in 1876 Seattle
A meticulous audit of King County court records reveals the day-to-day costs of frontier law, from witness fees for 'Indian Lucy' to the building of the very first jail.
- The True Cost of Building a Home in 1889 Seattle
While real estate developers and contractors debated the rising cost of labor and imported building supplies, one carpenter showed that a home could be built for a mere $150.
- The Cost of Political Squabbling
A skeptical look at a proposed recall election in Benton County that threatens to drain public coffers.
- The True Cost of a Game of Billiards
A Seattle man learns a hard lesson about domestic economy and the hypocrisy of his own spending habits after denying his family small requests.
- The High Cost of a Pole: Seattle’s Timber Boom and the Workers Who Cut It
As thousands of telegraph poles flood the market from Thurston County, local laborers face volatile wages and dangerous conditions in the logging camps that fuel the city's infrastructure.