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123 stories matching den
- The Desperate Final Days of an 'Opium Den' Raided in Seattle
A police raid on a Grant Street boarding house exposes a web of illicit activity, homelessness, and the grim reality of life in the city's fringes in 1890.
- Raiding the Opium Dens
Police Chief Woolery and Officer McGowan raid a hidden opium den between Eighth and Ninth Streets, leading to the arrest of two young men.
- Exposing the Opium Dens of Opera Alley
A local expose reveals that teenage messenger boys are being drawn into the city's opium dens and disreputable houses, triggering a promised police crackdown.
- Fire Sweeps Through Opium Den and Saloon District
A negligent stove in a Washington Street opium den sparks a conflagration that consumes seven buildings in the heart of Seattle.
- The Beating of Henry Brown: A Runaway Elevator Boy and a Family's Violent Secret
A 14-year-old black elevator operator flees his home after a savage whipping by his father, revealing a tangled story of poverty, pride, and punishment in 1894 Seattle.
- The 'Social Curse' Argument: A Seattle Paper Builds the Case Against the Chinese
An 1883 editorial sounds the alarm over opium dens and 'heathen hordes,' casting Chinese immigrants as a menace to be legislated out of existence — the ideological groundwork for the expulsions to come.
- A Coyote Trapping in the Ditch
After finding his poultry decimated, a local farmer clears a coyote den and prepares to show his catch at the town cinema.
- The Women Who Stormed the Police Chief’s Office
In 1885, a group of Seattle women, frustrated by official corruption and the unchecked influence of saloons and gambling dens, launched a moral crusade to demand a new Chief of Police.
- The Opium Dens of Justice Hammer
A police raid on opium dens and gambling halls nets a large group of Chinese residents and three white men in the heart of Seattle.
- The Real Estate Deal That Bought Silence on Vice
A lawsuit to shut down 'vicious dens' on A Street is dropped after a mysterious buyer purchases the property, raising concerns about city-sanctioned corruption.
- The Hidden Anarchist Dens of Old Seattle
A reporter goes undercover into the city's dimly lit saloons to find the radicals, the red-eyed agitators, and the illicit literature that supposedly threatened the order of the growing town.
- The Gambler’s Shield: How Seattle Saloon Keepers Dodged Mayor Moras’ Purge
When Chief Justice Burke urged the city to revoke liquor licenses from gambling dens, the Common Council refused—citing legal technicalities and protecting the very establishments the mayor wanted shut down.
- The Scandal of Chief Woolery
A scathing 1885 editorial accuses Seattle's Chief of Police of protecting gambling dens and brothels while posing as a moral martyr.
- The Street Brawl Over a Chinese Opium Den
A morning disturbance on Washington Street reveals the city's hidden world of opium dens and the swift, often brutal, efforts to police them.
- The City Hall Gambling Den
When police raided the local underworld, the city’s courtroom was transformed into an impromptu warehouse for illicit gaming gear.
- The Shadowed Rooms of Washington Street
A reporter dives into the underground 'stud poker' dens of 1880s Seattle, where railway men and laborers wagered their wages against the house.
- Gambling Dens Raided After Backroom Deal Goes Public
Mayor Ronald's 'reform administration' is forced to shut down four gambling houses after a secret protection scheme becomes a public scandal.
- The Great Rattlesnake Hunt of Tieton
After clearing over a hundred snakes from a hillside near Tieton, a local man vows to use poison gas to finish off the den.
- Underground Gambling Ring Broken in Seattle
Police used sledgehammers to breach a hidden gaming den connected by a long tunnel.
- Police Raid Opium Den; Suspect Leaps from Hotel Window
Alfred Dupre broke his leg and suffered internal injuries after jumping from a second-story window at the Pacific Hotel during a police raid on an alleged opium joint; two women were also arrested.
- The Blue Glass Cure: A Barber’s Quackery and a Seattle Elder’s Rage
In March 1877, an elderly Black man named Uncle Dan nearly came to blows with a white barber over a ridiculous 'medical' treatment involving blue window panes and sunlight.
- The Opium Evil: How 48 Cans Slipped Past Seattle's Customs Inspector
In 1877, a Seattle paper raged about opium smuggling, corruption in the revenue service, and a den where 'white men, Chinese and Indians' met—a racist panic that echoes today's drug crises.
- The Wilds of the 'Lava Beds'
When an aggressive vagrant terrorized a Seattle officer with a chair, he fled into the darkness of the city's infamous 'Lava Beds' district—a place where the law struggled to follow.
- The End of the Merchant's Saloon
After months of defiance, a notorious gambling den is shuttered by the Sheriff.
- A Night at the 'Mid-Way'
Police raid a notorious variety house gambling den, only to discover the house had been robbed by its own patrons.
Also about this, in other words
- Police Raid Hidden 'Fan Tan' Parlor
Officers storm a fortified gambling den in an alley between Yesler and Washington, arresting eighteen men in a late-night sweep.
- The Underground Prison Ring
Warden Catron uncovers a secret society of convicts at the Walla Walla prison, suspected of plotting to smuggle in opium.
- Vice on the Rocks: Seattle's Cleanup
A sweeping, if optimistic, report on the courts cracking down on the city's infamous dens of inequity.
- Tragedy in the Basement on Washington Street
A cook and cannery worker, struggling with isolation and mental illness, was found dead in a basement apartment.
- The Gambling Den Dilemma: Why Seattle’s Top Detective Fought the Ban on Vice
When City Council shut down gambling houses to clean up the streets, Detective Corbett warned that vice wouldn't disappear—it would just scatter and hide.
- The Raid on Occidental Avenue
Seattle police stage a dramatic basement breach to dismantle a gambling operation.
- City Council Targets 'Disorderly' Tenements
A new ordinance aims to clear out homes deemed a public nuisance based on the 'customs and habits' of residents.
- An Abandoned Household: A Public Denunciation in 1876
A rare glimpse into the harsh realities of Victorian domestic life in pioneer Seattle, where a husband took to the local press to publicly cut ties with his wife.