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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1854 | 1 |
| 1859 | 2 |
| 1860 | 2 |
| 1861 | 4 |
| 1862 | 1 |
| 1863 | 1 |
| 1865 | 1 |
| 1872 | 9 |
| 1876 | 49 |
| 1877 | 61 |
| 1878 | 31 |
| 1880 | 4 |
| 1882 | 4 |
| 1883 | 22 |
| 1884 | 15 |
| 1885 | 52 |
| 1886 | 16 |
| 1887 | 23 |
| 1888 | 29 |
| 1889 | 58 |
| 1890 | 20 |
| 1891 | 78 |
| 1892 | 105 |
| 1893 | 131 |
| 1894 | 121 |
| 1895 | 41 |
| 1898 | 2 |
| 1899 | 24 |
| 1900 | 3 |
| 1902 | 1 |
| 1903 | 54 |
| 1904 | 62 |
| 1905 | 5 |
| 1908 | 1 |
| 1909 | 54 |
| 1910 | 6 |
| 1911 | 8 |
| 1912 | 2 |
| 1914 | 16 |
| 1915 | 10 |
| 1916 | 29 |
| 1917 | 10 |
| 1923 | 6 |
| 1924 | 8 |
| 1925 | 4 |
1,186 stories matching light
- 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.
- Seattle Tries to Halve Its Street-Light Bill
A council debate over arc versus incandescent lamps exposed ward rivalries and a fight over how much control the city should keep over a private lighting contract.
- Aberdeen Keeps the Lights On, Three Months at a Time
When the electric company threatened to shut down the plant, citizens and city officials scraped together a temporary guarantee to keep Aberdeen lit.
- The Night Seattle Fought Over Its Streetlights
A special meeting of the Board of Aldermen turns into a tense negotiation with the Union Electric Company over the terms, safeguards and cost of lighting the city.
- Starvation Wages and a Broken Light Contract: Seattle's Lower House Erupts
Delegates demand answers on Pike Street paving, city jobs parceled out by foremen, Kilbourne Avenue subcontracting, and the gas-electric company's failure to light the city.
- Kennewick Bargained for Brighter Streets—and a Ten-Year Utility Deal
In December 1916, Pacific Power Light proposed replacing Kennewick’s carbon arc lamps with hydrogen lamps, but council members wanted guarantees that new technology and future rate cuts would reach the city.
- City Launches Crackdown on Unpaid Utilities
Tacoma utility officials are enforcing new liens on real estate and securing legal judgments to collect delinquent light and water bills.
- Tacoma Beats the Electric Company in Court and Keeps Selling Cheap Light
A Pierce County judge ruled the city may supply its own electricity — and that the private Commercial Electric Light Company has no right to shut down a competitor whose prices are simply too low for it to match.
- The Powerhouse Killing in Hamilton
A quarrel over steam, firewood and a dollar a day left an electric-light manager dead, a young night watchman charged with murder, and a town talking of lynching.
- Tacoma's $700,000 Water Deal Springs a Leak — and the Taxpayers Ask Who Pays
The city bought a water and light plant that delivers a fraction of what it promised. Now a suit is threatened, a superintendent's job looks 'cut and dried,' and a ratepayer on the outskirts wants to know why he must pay for water he cannot get.
- The Struggle for Streetlights
A heated debate erupts in city council over a new contract with the Union Electric Company, revealing tensions over public service, penalties, and infrastructure quality.
- The Battle for Aberdeen’s Streetlights
Cash-strapped taxpayers and the city council clash over whether to go dark or pay the bill for municipal electric lighting.
- The Ten-Cent Bet That Backfired
An Everett light company employee tried to bluff a union man over strike-related power outages, but ended up losing his confidence and his pride.
- Seattle's First Electric Lights
The Seattle Electric Light Company fires up its dynamo, turning darkness into a clear, white glow.
- A House of Prayer for All the Nations
In 1892, Seattle's Congregation Ohaveth Sholom dedicated the first Jewish synagogue in Washington, filling the new sanctuary at Seventh and Seneca with Jews and Gentiles and with sermons that insisted the building must be more than stone and gold.
- Tacoma's Two-Million-Dollar Question: Buy the Water Works, or Fix the Sewers?
On the eve of a bond vote, Tacoma's taxpayers are told they can have the private water and electric plant and new sewers too. The arithmetic says otherwise: after the purchase, $3,707 is left for sewers.
- Tacoma's 1909 Fight to Own Its Power
On the eve of a city election, advocates urged voters to approve a $2 million municipal light and power plant—and warned the private power trust would lie to stop them.
- The Mountain That Watched: Fire on Mount Rainier’s Peak
As Seattle and Portland celebrated the Fourth of July with parades and speeches, a mysterious signal fire blazed atop Mount Rainier, drawing thousands of eyes to the sky.
- Seattle’s Early Debate Over Public Power
The Chamber of Commerce considers whether the city should break from private monopoly and run its own electric grid.
- The City Debates Public Power
Seattle officials initiate a formal investigation into the city owning its own electric light plant.
- Tacoma's Water Chief Accused—and the City Hall Feud Behind It
Mayor Orr's appointment of George H. Hollidge to run Tacoma's water and light plants blew up into a public corruption fight, with secret affidavits, anonymous postal cards and a grand jury waiting.
- A City on the Brink: Olympia’s 1891 Debt Crisis and the Fight Over Jobs
Facing a constitutional debt limit, Olympia’s city council considers firing the deputy clerk, assistant city attorney, and city engineer—while a motion to revoke the street railway franchise fails by a tie.
- Fremont's Dark Streets
The Seattle City Council faces a standoff with the electric company over street lighting for the neighborhood.
- The Engineer’s Ash-Box Ghost: A Tale of New Year’s Eve Peril
In a column dated October 1870, the Seattle Daily Intelligencer reprints a harrowing tale from an old engineer about surviving a wreck by hiding under his locomotive's ash pan during a blizzard.
- Seattle Council Pushes Back on Streetcar Franchises
Electric railway companies plead poverty to avoid mandated street lighting, prompting a civic showdown over franchise obligations.
Also about this, in other words
- Left in the Dark: Seattle's Electrical Failure
When the lights went out across the city, a local resident spent the night navigating by touch.
- The Hidden Metal Powering the Electric Age
A rare, inaccessible metal from the Ural Mountains has become as valuable as gold, and it is the only thing keeping the world's incandescent light bulbs from shattering.
- The Daytime Light Mystery
Citizens flood city hall with calls wondering why electric lights are burning in broad daylight.
- City Left in Total Darkness
A gas main failure leaves downtown Seattle residents scrambling for lamps on Thanksgiving Eve.
- Power Struggle: Rebuilding the City's Light
Following a devastating fire, the city's electric light plant scrambles to rebuild its capacity while equipment remains delayed in transit.
- The Safety of City Lights
A San Francisco electrician tours Seattle's growing network of lights and warns that competition among workers leads to dangerous, sloppy wiring.
- The Moonlit Streets of Tacoma
Electrician Laaton pushes to replace wooden utility poles with ornamental iron lighting throughout the downtown core.
- The Porch Light Intervention
A romantic evening on Snohomish's Piety Hill is brought to a splashy, unceremonious end.