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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1872 | 3 |
| 1876 | 11 |
| 1877 | 8 |
| 1878 | 5 |
| 1880 | 1 |
| 1882 | 2 |
| 1883 | 17 |
| 1884 | 2 |
| 1885 | 7 |
| 1886 | 2 |
| 1887 | 6 |
| 1888 | 4 |
| 1889 | 34 |
| 1891 | 5 |
| 1892 | 19 |
| 1893 | 23 |
| 1894 | 17 |
| 1895 | 21 |
| 1899 | 6 |
| 1904 | 1 |
| 1916 | 1 |
195 stories matching level
- Third Street’s Sidewalk Standoff—and the Railings That Made It Worse
A street cut left storefronts stranded above grade. When the city tried to fix the sidewalks, property owners sued; when it put up railings, the block looked worse.
- The Train That Didn't Whistle
A Seattle teamster loses a leg at a blind railroad crossing, and the Washington Supreme Court weighs whether his failure to stop and listen bars his claim against the Northern Pacific.
- The Canal That Would Reshape Seattle, Held Up by Mud and Paperwork
In 1895 the government's Lake Washington ship canal was still a paper route, and every submerged lot owner had to sign away damages before a dredge could move.
- The Battle for Lake Union's Waters
As water levels drop, the rivalry between two companies turns into a legal and physical brawl over the future of the Lake Union outlet.
- Seattle's Canal Backers Turn Up the Pressure—and the Cash
Boosters behind the Lake Washington canal reported fresh subscriptions, promised a gravity water supply for the tide flats, and argued the city could not afford to miss its chance.
- The Canal That Would Raise Salmon Bay—and Fill Its Marshes
Government engineers promise Seattle property owners that the Lake Washington ship canal will not strand them: excavated earth will fill submerged land and a public street will run alongside the right-of-way.
- A Doctor Traded His Drugstore for a ‘Level Bottom’ That Wasn’t
Dr. Van Dyke sued R. K. Latimer, claiming a Green River land swap was built on false promises about acreage worth far less than the store.
- The Legislators Who Came to See a Ditch—and Left Believers
A steamboat tour of Smith Cove and Lake Union turns Eastern Washington lawmakers into ship-canal converts.
- The Great Storm of 1894
A violent cyclone-like windstorm tears through Western Washington, leveling buildings and trapping citizens in the debris.
- The Great Rebuilding: Seattle’s Hard Reset After the Fire
In the shadow of the 1889 Great Seattle Fire, the city saw a chance to rethink its geography, street levels, and civic character, transforming disaster into a blueprint for a modern metropolis.
- The Supreme Court Halts Seattle's Street Grading
A landmark court ruling forces the city to stop leveling streets unless they pay damages to homeowners.
- A Forty-Foot Leap From a Burning Lodging House
A predawn blaze in a Terrace Street rooming house forces immigrant laborers to jump from windows; one is likely fatally injured.
- Seattle Cut Water Rates—Then Claimed the Lake
In one night at City Hall, the council trimmed water bills for every ratepayer and got legal cover to take Lake Washington water, even if it meant digging its own canal past a private company.
- 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 Unfinished Ditch That Could Have Remade Seattle
An 1877 proposal to carve a channel between Lake Washington and the Sound highlights the ambitious—and forgotten—infrastructure dreams that once defined the city’s early development.
- Turning Stumps into a City: Seattle's Great Transformation
For a quarter-century, the residents of Seattle have been waging a slow, expensive war against the forest, clearing timber, leveling hills, and filling ravines to make way for a modern city.
- The Canal Came With a Catch: Seattle Had to Secure the Land
Congress had finally committed to a Lake Washington ship canal, but the money came with a condition: Seattle had to secure a free right-of-way from property owners. In 1894, civic leaders began the campaign that would decide whether the project moved forward.
- The Canal That Would Make Seattle an Island
In 1883, surveyors proposed locks and canals linking Lake Union and Lake Washington to tidewater—so coal could move by water and Seattle could 'practically stand on an island.'
- Seattle's $100,000 Night: The Armory Meeting That Sold the Ship Canal
Boosters packed the Armory in 1895 and pledged a fortune for locks and bridges on a Lake Washington canal—payable only after a ship made the passage from Elliott Bay.
- The Great Land Rush: Seattle’s West Side and Coney Island of the Northwest
As real estate brokers hawk cleared lots for $200 and advertise excursion trips to 'Coney Island' pleasure groves, Seattle is rapidly transforming from a logging town into a booming speculative market.
- The Unbuilt Dream: Engineering Seattle’s Ship Canal
In 1891, engineers surveyed the feasibility of connecting Puget Sound to Lake Washington, wrestling with the same geographical challenges and environmental trade-offs that define the city's infrastructure today.
- A Monorail on a 'Bicycle System': The 1892 Plan to Ride One Rail from Seattle to Tacoma
A company promised a thirty-mile elevated railway — cars balanced on a single steel rail, steadied by rubber wheels on an overhead guide — running across the tide flats and reaching Tacoma in forty minutes.
- The Great Seattle Hillside Regrade
While city engineers work to tame the steep streets with plows and rollers, the rapid expansion of Seattle's geography remains a constant, labor-intensive battle against the elements.
- Seattle's Half-Million-Dollar Gamble to Dig a Canal to the Sea
Boosters promised a transformed city: a Lake Washington ship canal, reclaimed Squak Slough farmland, filled tide lands and Seattle as the 'Liverpool of the Coast.'
- A Massive Seven-Story Building Planned for First and Seneca
In a $90,000 real estate deal, a new landmark will soon rise on the downtown waterfront, featuring three stories of warehouse space below the street level.
Also about this, in other words
- The Day the Floor Collapsed at the Revivals
A two-story church in Seattle, serving as a school on its lower floor, gave way under the weight of a crowd, resulting in a thirteen-foot plunge and multiple severe injuries.