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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1854 | 3 |
| 1876 | 12 |
| 1877 | 9 |
| 1878 | 5 |
| 1882 | 2 |
| 1883 | 7 |
| 1884 | 3 |
| 1885 | 9 |
| 1886 | 1 |
| 1888 | 8 |
| 1889 | 8 |
| 1890 | 1 |
| 1891 | 3 |
| 1892 | 11 |
| 1893 | 6 |
| 1894 | 10 |
| 1895 | 3 |
| 1897 | 1 |
| 1898 | 1 |
| 1899 | 3 |
| 1903 | 3 |
| 1904 | 7 |
| 1905 | 2 |
| 1909 | 6 |
| 1910 | 1 |
| 1915 | 1 |
| 1916 | 3 |
| 1923 | 1 |
130 stories matching nuisanc
- City Hall Wins Fight to Shutter Immoral Dance Halls
A Superior Court judge confirms the city's authority to declare dance halls a public nuisance, citing the corruption of public morals.
- The Coulee City Clean-Up
A judge orders a local man to be forcibly scrubbed after being declared a public nuisance.
- The City Council vs. The Slaughterhouses
In an early effort to clean up the city's streets, the Seattle City Council orders the immediate abatement of butcher-shop nuisances.
- The Price of a Public Nuisance
A man dubbed 'Dirty Smith' faces the magistrate and finds himself working off his debt to society on the city’s construction projects.
- The 'Stink Factory' Meets a Fiery End
Neighbors of a pungent fertilizer plant on the Grant Street bridge cheered as an early morning fire resolved a long-standing public nuisance that the City Council had failed to address.
- 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.
- The Hurdy-Gurdy House on Main Street
A Seattle neighborhood erupts in a formal complaint against the raucous music and nightly disturbances of a Main Street 'hurdy-gurdy house.'
- The City's Water Problem: A Nuisance in the Making
After the Great Seattle Fire, one man's attempt to build a makeshift shelter leads to a messy public legal battle over fire hazards and sanitation.
- The Boys of Seattle’s Waterfront: A Victorian-Era Public Nuisance
In June 1878, Seattle’s civic leaders were up in arms over a group of boys bathing in the nude near the coal bunkers, marking an early clash between rustic freedom and a modernizing, ‘respectable’ city.
- The Condemned Jail of 1876
A scathing Grand Jury report in 1876 denounced Seattle's 'lock-up' as a public nuisance, sparking a debate over fiscal priorities that mirrors the city's modern struggles with infrastructure and housing.
- Tacoma’s Telephone War: A Council Gridlock Over Modernization
A deadlocked city council clashes over an automatic telephone franchise, pitting progress against the fear of a 'double service' nuisance.
- City Council Faces Tensions Over Prostitution and Budgets
In their final session of the term, Walla Walla councilmen navigate budget disputes and the first-ever petition to remove bawdy houses as public nuisances.
- The Salvation Army’s Public Nuisance
A Seattle man files a lawsuit for damages after a noisy street-corner protest left him terrified, trampled, and bruised.
- Grand Jury Exposes Seattle Brothels and Liquor Sales to Native Americans
In September 1876, a King County grand jury reported widespread lawlessness in Seattle, including indictments for selling liquor to Native Americans, running gambling houses, and maintaining public nuisances.
- The Great Northern Labor Dispute
A railroad executive reflects on the escalating conflict with the American Railway Union and the nuisance of transient workers.
- Relocating Nuisance Beavers to Save Orchards
Game commission transplants beavers from Okanogan orchards to mountain streams to prevent damage and boost water conservation.
- Who Owns the Water's Edge?
A legal brief detailing the property rights of landowners whose lots border the tides and navigable waters of Seattle.
- The Battle for Moltke Street
A legal dispute over a public right-of-way reveals early tensions between private property development and public access to Lake Union.
- The Judge and the Brothel
A Tacoma magistrate’s attempt to move his court away from a neighboring brothel backfired when the City Council ordered him to clean up the street instead.
- The Sheriff’s Hammer: Snohomish’s Last Stand Against the 'Nuisance'
In March 1877, Judge J.R. Lewis and the local Grand Jury launched a coordinated assault on vice, seizing brothels and fining operators, while simultaneously exposing corruption in county bonds.
- Seattle Health Board Battles School Board Over 'Unsanitary' Conditions
Health officials attempt to shut down the South School, but the School Board defies the order, setting the stage for a legal showdown over sanitation.
- The Stench of the Exchange
A Snohomish newspaper takes aim at an upstream sanitation disaster, warning that the town’s growth is outpacing its infrastructure.
- The City’s 'Worthless' Vagabond Problem
A 1885 editorial call for the city to forcibly expel the unemployed, framed as a nuisance to the thriving Pacific Northwest economy.
- The Fight Over the Wishkah River
Prominent landowners seek an injunction to halt the surveying and platting of tide lands, citing concerns over potential river obstruction and property rights.
- The Unwanted Guest of Providence Hospital
A 'harmless crank' in 1885 Seattle exposes the gaps in the city's social safety net.