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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1876 | 2 |
| 1878 | 1 |
| 1882 | 1 |
| 1883 | 1 |
| 1885 | 2 |
| 1888 | 2 |
| 1889 | 1 |
| 1890 | 2 |
| 1891 | 1 |
| 1892 | 2 |
| 1893 | 1 |
| 1894 | 1 |
| 1904 | 3 |
| 1905 | 1 |
| 1914 | 1 |
22 stories matching stench
- The Stench of the Fairhaven Mudflats
Citizens demand immediate action to address the foul refuse dumping ground north of Harris Street.
- The Horror in the Brush
Surveyors working in the woods of West Seattle discover a yellow trunk containing a gruesome, blood-stained discovery that suggests a dark crime.
- 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 Stench of Progress
A romantic carriage ride is cut short by the inescapable smell of a local slaughterhouse.
- Sewage Crisis Plagues Tacoma's East Side
The filling of tide flats has caused a sewer to back up, creating a public health nightmare for hundreds of factory workers.
- The Mayor's War on 'Black Chapel'
Mayor J. T. Ronald vetoes a saloon license in a notorious district, decrying the density of vice in a three-hundred-foot square.
- The Vampire Panic of Seattle
A grim, gothic account of a 'vampire' outbreak in a local immigrant community, documenting the desperate, violent lengths to which villagers went to protect their own.
- The Scandal at Washington Agricultural College
Regents face accusations of corruption and kickbacks regarding construction contracts for the new state college.
- Seattle's 1894 Election: Corruption, Fraud, and the Fight for City Hall
As voters head to the polls, the Post-Intelligencer unleashes a blistering attack on the Democratic administration, alleging graft, forgery, and a machine determined to hold power at any cost.
- Olympia Bought a $1,500 Sewer Map Critics Called Worthless
A letter to the editor accuses the city council of buying a stranger's sewer plan without scrutiny—complete with a harbor reservoir already condemned in San Diego.
- The Hidden Scourge on the Rooftop
When a cigar factory worker in Seattle was discovered to be rotting from a mysterious disease, it sparked a local panic over health, labor, and the limits of the city's care.
- The Tragedy of the Forgotten Pallet
Police discover the body of a man in a squalid Seattle boarding spot, highlighting the grim conditions faced by laborers in a rapidly growing, exclusionary city.
- 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.
- The Shame of the King County Jail
A scathing report from a grand jury reveals a 'standing disgrace' where prisoners are packed into windowless cells and the county government operates in squalid, cramped quarters.
- The Health Crisis at Yakima’s Doorstep
A scathing editorial exposes the city council’s refusal to address the lack of a proper sewer system.
- The East Side Sewer Crisis
Stagnant sewage on the tide flats threatens to shutter East Side factories, sparking a desperate plea for infrastructure relief.
- The Price of Neglect: Seattle’s Summer Stench
In 1876, the Duly Intelligencer called out the city for ignoring stagnant, disease-breeding gutters in the business district, warning that the 'healthiest city on the coast' was becoming a hotbed for fever.
- The Great Stink of 1882
When Makah schoolgirls in Neah Bay proved to their matron that rotting whale blubber smelled better than imported Limburger cheese.
- A Foul Nuisance in the Indian Addition
A rotting horse carcass left in the street sparks an urgent health complaint from a neighborhood near 34th and V.
- The Carcass Complaint
A public health warning issued regarding the improper disposal of dead animals in public roads.
- A Sanitary Sermon for Kennewick
City Health Officer F.M. Crosby issues a biblical-style list of ten ordinances to combat filth and disease.
- The Unbearable Stench of Progress
A 1888 editorial calls out the Seattle city council for ignoring the 'offensive' and 'stagnant' state of city streets that 'suffocate the unfortunate individual who ventures into public'.
Also about this, in other words
- The Smell of Death: Seattle’s First Fight Over Industrial Zoning
In May 1890, a tannery near Seneca and Front streets was driving neighbors to the brink of eviction with its noxious fumes. One resident took to the press to demand the city council act before property values collapsed.
- The Salvation Army's Odorous Opponents
A group of young men tried to drive the Salvation Army out of town by dousing their hall in polecat oil.
- The Stinking Gutters of 1876
While Seattle promoters bragged of a salubrious climate, a local newspaper editorial exposed the reality of deadly, stagnant cesspools lining the streets.
- The Price of a Filthy City
In 1877, Seattle editors warned that stagnant water and neglected gutters were more than just a nuisance—they were a matter of life and death.
- The Silent Dangers of Seattle’s Early Boarding Houses
A 19th-century public health warning reveals the grim reality of sanitation in early Seattle, where overcrowded and poorly drained boarding houses became breeding grounds for typhoid fever.
- The 'Sawdust Swamp': A Public Health Warning for Seattle
A century and a half ago, the Intelligencer warned that Seattle's lack of proper drainage was not just a civic embarrassment, but a lethal threat to the growing population.
- The Drain Detectives
A warning to tenants: sewer gas is a hidden killer, and your landlord’s thrift might be costing you your health.
- Post-Fire Sanitation: The Fight for a Healthy Seattle
Following the Great Seattle Fire of 1889, local physicians and concerned citizens publicly debated the city’s primitive sewer systems, warning that decaying waste in the 'burnt district' threatened a public health crisis.