The Shadow Over Hayes Street
A vacant house, recently traded for farmland in Olympia, goes up in flames as neighbors blame the itinerant men drifting through Seattle's industrial fringe.
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.
A large two-story frame house with a one-story addition at the southeast corner of Silver and Hayes streets, about three blocks southeast of Grace Hospital, was burned to the ground between the hours of 1 and 2 o'clock this morning. The house was built by John H. Morf, a grading contractor, who owned and occupied it until a few months ago, when he traded it to a man for a farm near Olympia. The house had been vacant since, as the new owner also resides in Olympia. The owner had visited the property a few days prior to inspect it, taking care to ensure no matches were left where rats might ignite them. Mrs. Dolan, who lives nearby, believes the fire was set by tramps, noting that she was awakened the previous morning by someone hammering on her door. The police and firemen suspect the fire was of incendiary origin. The alarm was eventually turned in by the clerk of the Abbott House, at Third and Pike streets, over half a mile away. When firefighters arrived, they found no water available at the scene and could only work to protect the neighboring properties. The house was valued at approximately $800, though its insurance policy had likely lapsed due to the lack of a tenant.
“Mrs. Dolan, who lives close by, is sure that tramps set the house on fire.”
This 1892 report highlights a persistent Seattle anxiety: the tension between vacant, speculative property and the city's vulnerable populations during times of economic instability. Just as then, the 'trash fire' in a vacant structure remains a focal point for neighbor complaints and debates over who actually owns—and is responsible for—the city's idle land.
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