The Third Blaze in a Year: Littell & Smythe Factory Ruined
A sash and door mill between Pike and Pine Street is reduced to cinders, the third time the business has caught fire in a single year.
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.
Fire broke out in the sash and door factory of the Littell & Smythe Manufacturing Company, on Third Avenue, between Pike and Pine streets, shortly before 7 o'clock last evening, and practically ruined the building. Only the energy and skill of the firemen saved the adjoining buildings. Robert Coutts, an employee of the Eureka livery stable, and W. H. Shank, who owns a blacksmith shop in the rear, saw the flames bursting out of the rear of the building. They shouted to A. E. Greenus, who turned in an alarm. The fire started in the drying-room, on the second floor, directly over the boilers, and rapidly spread through the building. Captain Clark, of No. 2 company, was first on the scene, smashed in the door, and found the whole upper story in flames. Mr. Littell, manager of the company, said he left the factory about 5:15 o'clock, and was at his home on Tenth Street when he learned of the fire. This is the third time within a year that the factory has been on fire. Mr. Littell estimates the loss at $12,000 to $14,000. When the flames began to threaten the adjoining buildings, all the horses and vehicles were removed from the Eureka stable to a place of safety. While doing this, Mr. Shank was kicked on the knee by an excited horse and painfully injured.
“This is the third time within a year that the factory has been on fire.”
The intersection of Third and Pike remains one of the busiest spots in downtown Seattle. While industrial sash and door factories have long since departed from the city core, this report captures a time when small, fire-prone manufacturing operations were tucked directly into the commercial heart of the city, often separated from horse stables by nothing more than a wooden wall.
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