The City's Broken Lumber Deal
When lumber prices soared in 1887, Seattle’s city contractors simply walked away from their obligations—and the city council let them get away with it.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
On September 1st, 1886, the firm of Stetson & Post contracted with the city to supply it with all the lumber which it required during the period of one year at the uniform price of $9 per thousand. After this contract was entered into, the price of lumber began to advance, and about May 1st the contractors refused to supply lumber except at the rather rate of $12 per thousand. No steps were taken by the city to enforce the fulfillment of the contract and consequently the lumber has been furnished the city by the same firm at an advance of $3 per thousand. If the price of lumber had declined instead of advancing, it is safe to say that Stetson & Post would have insisted upon the city paying the full contract price for every foot of lumber that it obtained. They would have insisted upon itself the full benefit of the contract and it is only fair that the city should also receive the benefit to which it is entitled. The period of the contract has expired, but it is not too late for the city to take legal steps to compel Stetson & Post to bear the extra expense which has been occasioned through their failure to fulfill their contract just that the city be compelled to bear the loss which should rightly fall upon a firm of contractors because of their failure to judge the market correctly.
“They would have insisted upon the full benefit of the contract and it is only fair that the city should also receive the benefit to which it is entitled.”
This 1887 editorial highlights a classic Seattle struggle: the tension between private developers and the city’s treasury. Just as in modern debates over project cost-overruns and public-private partnerships, the city in 1887 struggled to hold powerful contractors to their initial bids when economic winds shifted.
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