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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1861 | 2 |
| 1862 | 1 |
| 1872 | 2 |
| 1876 | 3 |
| 1877 | 6 |
| 1878 | 1 |
| 1883 | 1 |
| 1884 | 1 |
| 1885 | 2 |
| 1888 | 5 |
| 1889 | 4 |
| 1890 | 1 |
| 1891 | 4 |
| 1892 | 4 |
| 1893 | 2 |
| 1894 | 2 |
| 1899 | 2 |
| 1903 | 1 |
| 1916 | 1 |
| 1917 | 2 |
47 stories matching sprawl
- Forging a Life in Frontier Snohomish
Before the city was a sprawling hub, local blacksmiths like H. Hanson were the essential engine keeping farms and logging camps running with 'neatness and dispatch.'
- The Downtown Seattle Lot That Could Have Been Yours
A 1876 real estate advertisement offers a sprawling 160x120 foot residential parcel in the heart of what is now the metropolitan core.
- The Graveyard That Vanished: Seattle’s Urban Sprawl Swallows the Dead
As new dwellings rise on Front Street and Stewart Square, the old burial ground is being paved over, erasing a physical link to the city's earliest days.
- The Hyena of Seattle: A 'Herculean Woman' Leaves a Man Sprawled in the Dust
In a rare display of physical dominance that defied Victorian gender norms, a local woman engaged in a public brawl so fierce it was described as 'fiendish delight,' leaving her male opponent screaming for mercy.
- County Commission Petitions for Power to Tax Northern Pacific Railroad
In a bid to expand local tax coffers, Yakima County officials lobby the state to end the tax-exempt status of the railroad's sprawling infrastructure.
- The Price of Ownership: Seattle’s 1888 Delinquent Tax List
A sprawling registry of property owners, from the prominent to the 'Unknown,' failing to pay their dues during Seattle’s rapid expansion.
- The Great Block River Auction of 1876
A sprawling public sale in the countryside south of Seattle offers a snapshot of pioneer life, livestock, and the rhythm of late 19th-century farm commerce.
- The Collapse of a Seattle Dynasty
Facing mounting debt, the city’s founding family reorganizes its sprawling land and streetcar empire under a new corporate umbrella.
- 1889 Seattle Ad Pitches Lots by the Cable Line
Before the city sprawled into the suburbs, developers sold the dream of West Seattle and Queen Anne as idyllic, 'sightly' investments.
- The Christmas Poultry Heist
Two local drifters outsmart a tavern keeper in a holiday shooting match scheme.
- The Water Superintendent’s Public Feud
Seattle’s Water Superintendent fires back at claims of mismanagement, launching a sprawling, finger-pointing defense of his department’s books.
- The Loggers and the Law: A Ledger of Territory Disputes
In August 1888, the Seattle district court docket revealed a sprawling conflict over the Washington timber frontier, pitting private mills and railroads against the federal government.
- Seattle Claims Victory in the Gridiron Mud
A rainy, sludge-filled football clash at Madison Park sees Seattle avenge its previous defeat against Tacoma.
- The Curious Treasures of a Local Thief
Police clear out a sprawling collection of stolen property, ranging from hydraulic equipment to jeweler's tools, found at the home of a man named Albert Lombard.
- The Doctor, the Real Estate Agent, and the Horsewhip
A sensational courtroom drama unfolds after a woman attempts to cowhide a doctor in his office, leading to a sprawling conspiracy suit.
- The Midnight Roommate Mix-up
A night of drinking turns into a farcical brawl when two roommates accidentally wander into each other’s beds.
- The Great Seattle Streetcar Race
Two competing groups of prominent businessmen rush to City Council, proposing a sprawling network of cable and horse-drawn streetcars to reshape the city's growth.
- The Price of Harvest: Snohomish’s 1877 Industrial Fair
Before city streets and suburban sprawl, Snohomish County’s identity was forged in a competition of apples, hand-forged horseshoes, and the finest cured bacon.
- The Great Seattle Housing Boom of 1890
A staggering list of hundreds of building permits filed on the final day of 1890 reveals the rapid, frantic expansion of a city rebuilding itself from the ashes of the Great Fire.
- A Death Threat Pinned to the Door of a Tide-Land Official
While Col. Will L. Visscher was in Olympia on public land business, someone beat his dog and left a note warning that his Fairhaven house would burn.
- The Struggle Over Seattle's Early Park System
City commissioners argue that selling the centrally located City Park could fund a sprawling, water-front recreation area on Lake Washington.
- Vigilant Operator Foils Train Robbery
A night operator at the Northern Pacific depot stops three armed train robbers in their tracks after a daring heist on a moving freight train.
- The Pioneer Nursery Bringing Life to the Sound
Before Snohomish was a sprawling suburb, it was a frontier canvas for orchards and ornamental gardens seeking to tame the wild Washington landscape.
- Pioneer of the Valley Dies at 80
William McGuire, a Civil War veteran and longtime Hover resident, leaves behind a sprawling family legacy of 59 descendants.
- The Great Annexation Ballot of 1891
Before the sprawling metropolis of today, Seattle held a massive, city-wide special election to incorporate its growing suburbs—from Ballard to Salmon Bay—into the city limits.
Also about this, in other words
- The Boom on the Bay: How Seattle Suburbs Remade the City
Electric streetcars and new transit lines are transforming Seattle’s geography, pushing the city's identity into the outskirts as the 'slow, old horse-car' becomes a relic of the past.
- The Struggle for Home Ownership in Early Seattle
An 1877 editorial argues that the city's growth is being stifled by speculative land hoarding, keeping affordable homes out of reach for the working class.
- The Shadow Over Seattle's Growth
A look at the 1876 struggle between the promise of development and the ‘incubus’ of land monopolies.
- The Boomtown Fever: Seattle and Tacoma in 1888
A visiting statesman details the rapid, frantic rise of two Puget Sound rivals, noting the soaring land values and the arrival of Eastern capital as workers flock to the territory.
- The Real Estate 'Boom' of 1889
As Seattle sprawled rapidly during the late 19th century, land speculators flooded the newspapers with ads promising prime lots on the city's hills, shaping the geography of a growing metropolis.
- The Push for a Western Migration
In 1877, Seattle boosters and railroad agents mapped out a deliberate campaign to transform the Puget Sound basin from a 'remote' wilderness into a thriving, industrial metropolis.
- The Rambling Village That Wanted to Be a City
An 1876 editorial reflects on Seattle’s humble, sprawling aesthetic, arguing that the lack of architectural grandeur was not a failure of taste, but a deliberate, democratic strategy to avoid the 'unhealthy' wealth concentration of Eastern cities.
- Rudyard Kipling's Western Frontier Dispatch
The renowned writer muses on the frantic growth of new towns, the 'epidemic of politics' in the Canadian prairies, and the restless ambition of the Pacific Northwest.