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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1854 | 5 |
| 1858 | 1 |
| 1859 | 2 |
| 1860 | 1 |
| 1861 | 1 |
| 1862 | 1 |
| 1863 | 1 |
| 1864 | 5 |
| 1872 | 6 |
| 1876 | 63 |
| 1877 | 43 |
| 1878 | 29 |
| 1879 | 2 |
| 1880 | 4 |
| 1882 | 9 |
| 1883 | 43 |
| 1884 | 28 |
| 1885 | 26 |
| 1886 | 20 |
| 1887 | 20 |
| 1888 | 31 |
| 1889 | 78 |
| 1890 | 13 |
| 1891 | 70 |
| 1892 | 130 |
| 1893 | 93 |
| 1894 | 81 |
| 1895 | 95 |
| 1897 | 1 |
| 1898 | 12 |
| 1899 | 16 |
| 1900 | 5 |
| 1902 | 3 |
| 1903 | 78 |
| 1904 | 36 |
| 1905 | 3 |
| 1907 | 1 |
| 1908 | 22 |
| 1909 | 35 |
| 1910 | 7 |
| 1911 | 2 |
| 1912 | 3 |
| 1914 | 4 |
| 1915 | 6 |
| 1916 | 11 |
| 1917 | 5 |
| 1918 | 2 |
| 1923 | 4 |
| 1924 | 1 |
1,158 stories matching main
- Seattle’s Temple of Learning Rises Between Two Lakes
In 1895, contractors raced to finish a $200,000 campus between Union and Washington lakes—complete with copper finials, a gymnasium and a hillside observatory—before the September opening.
- The Sewer Plan That Imagined a City of 200,000
Engineer J. S. Camp presented Olympia’s council with a tide-powered reservoir and automatic flush tanks, a system meant to grow with the capital city.
- Free Mail Delivery Is Coming to Olympia—If the City Numbers Its Houses
Postmaster V. A. Milroy says carriers, boxes and three new routes will be ready by New Year’s Day, but two-thirds of the city’s houses still lack numbers and property owners must pay to add them.
- The Land Grab That Built Tacoma: How the Northern Pacific Railroad Stole Millions of Acres
A furious editorial in the Seattle Star exposes the Northern Pacific Railroad’s scheme to misappropriate public lands for a private coal line, arguing that the company is using legal loopholes to steal from settlers in King and Snohomish counties.
- Seven Months at Sea: The State of Maine’s Ordeal
The State of Maine left New York in July 1892 and reached Seattle 201 days later, her crew disabled by saltwater boils, her water spoiled, and her captain forced to beat men to the pumps.
- The Forest Empire That Built Washington
A sweeping 1900 survey of the state's lumber industry counted billions of feet of standing timber, 250 sawmills, and $7 million a year in wages—proof that the trees, not the cities, came first.
- Fairhaven’s Race for Clean Water
Construction begins on the city's new water main to Lake Padden as the race to build infrastructure across the 'Bay Cities' intensifies.
- One Coal-Oil Dealer Is Holding Olympia's New Electric Railway Hostage for $10,000
The streetcar line is contracted, the rails are shipped and the crews are ready — but George Marvin Savage's outfit sits squarely in the middle of Main Street, and he will not budge for less than ten thousand dollars.
- A Pioneer's Return: 1863 to 1883
Rev. D. K. Maine visits the rapidly transforming city he helped settle twenty years prior.
- The Castle on Capitol Hill: Seattle’s $1 Million Gamble for a Grand Hotel
Arthur Denny and his board of trustees have spent months sifting through dozens of architectural plans to find the perfect design for a new landmark. The winner? A Gothic stone fortress that will tower over Second Avenue.
- The Struggle for a Central Union Depot
As Seattle rapidly expanded, competing railroad interests vied for the prime waterfront site at the foot of Main Street, mirroring modern battles over urban infrastructure and transit hubs.
- The Ten-Foot Map That Would Sewer Olympia
In 1891, an engineer drew a room-sized map and planned a drainage system for a city of 20,000—if the council could get around the Seventh Street tunnel.
- The Westside Gets Left Off the Mail Route
Olympia divided its new free-delivery service into three districts, but the neighborhood that paid its taxes and owned its homes was excluded—again.
- The Brick and the Ballot: Wenatchee’s Fight for County Status
As the legislature carves out a new county from Chelan and Kittitas territories, local developers donate a brick courthouse to secure the seat of power in a town on the rise.
- The Stone Capitol Olympia Was Promised
Architect Ernest Flagg says the foundation is finished and bids are about to go out for a fireproof statehouse—one built to last, if the legislature will pay for it.
- Half-Finished Streets and a Man-Trap on Main: The Tribune Takes the City to Task
On the morning of a council meeting, Olympia's paper catalogues the abandoned plank road, the blocked gutters, the depot sidewalk rotting for two weeks, and a hole in Main Street waiting to cost the city money.
- The Empire of the Sun: How a New Hotel in Seattle Will Define the Territory
A glimpse into the ambitious construction of the new British Hotel, signaling Seattle's rapid growth and confidence as a territorial capital.
- Walla Walla Utility Upgrades Infrastructure
Northwestern Gas and Electric Company launches a major project to replace aging gas mains in the business district and extend service to residential neighborhoods.
- Thirty-Seven Miners Died Because They Stayed to Fight the Fire
A blaze in the Franklin coal mine sent smoke through the gangways on Aug. 24, 1894, killing 37 men and boys who thought they had time to escape.
- The Great Dayton Fire: A Block of Ashes and a City’s Near Miss
On the night of April 2, 1882, flames consumed three blocks in downtown Dayton, Washington. While the town paid with its buildings, Seattle’s own fire department narrowly escaped disaster thanks to a single force pump.
- The Great Land Grab: Tacoma Citizens Unite Against Northern Pacific’s ‘Squatter’ Tactics
In a packed hall at Reinig’s Hall, leading citizens condemn the railroad’s seizure of public lands and its attempt to claim hundreds of thousands of acres for a coal line that will never be built.
- Racist Exclusion and the Main Street Real Estate Panic
Local property owners react with outrage as landlords lease buildings to Chinese residents, illustrating the exclusionary climate of 1880s Seattle.
- The Murder in the Bunkhouse North of Auburn
A young Japanese labor contractor was beaten and killed as he slept in a cabin on J.W. Nails's farm; a roommate was jailed while blood trails, a loaded musket and an opium pipe deepened the mystery.
- A Rent Dispute Turns Violent in the Alley
When a tenant in a Main Street lodging house couldn't pay his $24 debt, his landlord was attacked with a knife.
- 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.
Also about this, in other words
- The Shadowy Assailant of Main Street
A prominent local real estate man is jumped by a stranger in a crowd of harvest hands, leaving the city wondering who turned to violence in the night.
- The New Face of Main Street
A wooden 'temporary' structure goes up at the corner of Main and Second, drawing both praise for its utility and a critique of Seattle's lack of permanent masonry.
- The Truck That Blocked Main Street
A driver is arrested for obstructing traffic, only for the City Attorney to realize there is no law against it.
- Main Street Refuses to Be Paved
Property owners between Fifth and Sixth beat back a macadam upgrade, a councilman berates them for it, and the street gets planks instead.
- A Team of Runaway Horses Shatters Main Street Calm
An afternoon of commerce ends in a wreckage after a team of horses bolts, leaving a path of destruction through the center of town.
- A Runaway Team Charges Down Main Street
A dray team belonging to William DeSpain bolted, leading to a high-speed scene of terror on the main thoroughfare of Ritzville.
- The Sliding Main Street Hillside
A recently completed street project on Main Street is already being reclaimed by the earth as the steep, clay-rich hillside slides into town.
- The Tug-of-War Over the Main Street Slip
Local contractors and industrial giants clash over the city’s limited waterfront access.