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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1858 | 1 |
| 1876 | 3 |
| 1878 | 1 |
| 1880 | 1 |
| 1883 | 2 |
| 1885 | 2 |
| 1887 | 1 |
| 1889 | 6 |
| 1890 | 1 |
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| 1892 | 2 |
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| 1895 | 5 |
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| 1917 | 1 |
38 stories matching wider
- The Pavement Fight: Seattle’s Battle for a Wider Second Street
A century ago, city leaders warned that Seattle’s narrow streets were choking its growth, sparking a massive petition to widen the thoroughfare before the 'brick building' boom made the change impossible.
- The Great Seattle 'Slot' Debate
A local cable railway company threatens to abandon a major investment after the city council forces an impossible construction standard on their tracks.
- Before the Railroads Cut Through Seattle, One Man Proposed a Saner Street Grid
A letter to the editor calls for wider avenues, a logical naming and numbering system, and railroad tracks that follow the platted streets—not slice across them at will.
- Seattle's 1889 Fire Destroys 64 Acres of Downtown
A glue pot disaster in a paint shop levels sixty-four acres of Seattle’s business district, triggering a massive regional relief effort.
- A Saw Cut Through His Brain. Seattle Doctors Watched Him Live.
Horatio Stetson's head was nearly split in two by a rip saw at a Seattle mill. Thirty-six hours later, he was talking, moving his limbs, and astonishing the physicians at Providence Hospital.
- The Burning of Oakville
A deliberate act of arson leveled the Grays Harbor town of Oakville, sparking rumors of a wider conspiracy against the mill district.
- The City That Couldn't Pay Its Bills: Seattle’s Fiscal Crisis and the Fight for Expansion
Mayor Moran and Councilman Dane plead with citizens to understand why street paving is stalled and sewer plans are shelved—not from laziness, but because state law caps the city's debt just as the population doubles.
- The Mysterious Death of Abe Gross
A 28-year-old Tacoma dry-goods partner was found shot through the mouth in his bed. His brother's grief, a coroner's open verdict, and a city's disbelief turned a private tragedy into a public mystery.
- The Shadow of the Indian Wars in the Snohomish Valley
As rumors of conflict and uprisings on the upper Columbia stir the frontier, Snohomish locals organize a volunteer militia to defend their settlements.
- Gold in the Wenatchee—and a War Warning at Fort Simcoe
A hard-riding express reaches Steilacoom with word of 300 miners in the new Wenatchee and Naches diggings—and a settler's letter warning of a wider Indigenous war over the invasion.
- The Narrow Escape on Whidbey Island
A quiet Sunday trip to church turns to tragedy for the Kellogg family after a pair of startled horses wreck their wagon in a field of stumps.
- A Dangerous Journey Home from Church
A quiet Sunday excursion in Snohomish takes a terrifying turn when a startled team of horses crashes, leaving a daughter critically injured.
- Can a Railroad Cut Timber on Public Land?
Judge Hoyt rules on the definition of 'adjacent' lands, a decision with major implications for Northern Pacific’s expansion in Washington Territory.
- The 3,249-Acre Map That Laid Out Seattle’s Waterfront
In 1895, King County appraisers filed the first full plat of Seattle’s tide lands—reserving broad rail avenues, harbor blocks and a street grid that still shadows the modern waterfront.
- Tacoma Mayoral Race Centers on Clean Government
As the mayoral race heats up, the local press weighs in on the divide between a 'closed' city and the advocates for a wider-open town.
- Tacoma Fights the Railroad for Its Own Waterfront
At a state land commission hearing, city officials and citizens demand a wider public harbor line to keep the Northern Pacific and Tacoma Land Company from controlling the waterway.
- The Navy's Giant Dry Dock Needed One More Appropriation
A $200,000 federal appropriation rescued the Port Orchard dry dock from a year's delay, a rare bit of good news for Puget Sound's naval future.
- The Sudden Death of the Man Who Ran Seattle’s Newspaper, Bank and Republican Party
George H. Heilbron, banker, Republican kingmaker and editor of the Post-Intelligencer, died without warning. Rival Seattle papers agreed the city had lost one of its most useful citizens.
- The Temple of Thought: Snohomish Builds Its Own Athenaeum
A visiting orator declares the new Snohomish Athenaeum a 'temple of science, literature, and art,' rising from the wilderness to preserve the intellectual legacy of the Pacific Northwest.
- The Shadowy Dealings in the Wickersham Case
A US Attorney and a secret testimony attempt reveal the underbelly of Seattle's political and legal machinations.
- The Fight for Transparent Government
A Tacoma citizen challenges the centralization of power in Washington’s early governance, warning against the 'mercenary' influence of political rings and trusts.
- The Double Standard of the 'Siren' Argument
An editorial critique of contemporary social norms and gendered double standards following the high-profile Breckinridge scandal.
- The Iron Horse Reaches South Aberdeen
Construction crews push the Northern Pacific line toward the harbor, connecting the new city to the wider world.
- The Times Compositors Walk Out
A labor dispute over 'narrow measure' typesetting and contract length leads to a strike at the Seattle Evening Times.
- The Hidden Wealth Beneath Palmer
A rare, high-quality discovery of cannel coal on a local homestead sparks a $150,000 investment frenzy near the Northern Pacific tracks.
Also about this, in other words
- The Campaign for Wide-Tired Wagons
A push for state legislation to mandate wider wagon tires to preserve Washington's rural roads from destruction.
- The Struggle for Wider Wheels on Seattle Streets
As plank roads replaced muddy paths in 1885 Seattle, a push for heavy-duty wagon tires highlighted the city's growing pains with infrastructure.
- The Four-Inch Loophole
Everett officials reject an employment office application, citing a technicality that contradicts their own history of political maneuvering.
- The Inn-Wide Hotel: A Foreclosure in Disguise
W. Tirtlot offers the town's oldest hotel for sale on terms that guarantee his income for four years—revealing the precarious financial state of local commerce in 1876.
- The Great 'Broad Gauge' Railway Riot
When two rival railroad companies turned the Seattle tideflats into a battlefield, hundreds of hired hands and lawyers clashed over a single strip of land.
- The Seattle Real Estate 'Gigantic Scheme' to Chicago
A proposed state law to widen Seattle streets is condemned as a speculative ploy to unload property on unsuspecting Eastern buyers.
- A Blind Elder's Suit to Undo a Land Fraud
In 1889, Washington O-dit went to court to void a deed for 160 acres on the Ahtanum, saying it had been taken from him without his knowledge or consent.
- The Wharfinger's Narrow Escape
A jury rules that a dock owner isn't a common carrier, leaving an injured woman without recourse.