The Price of a Regrade
A local property owner sues the city for $10,000, claiming a street regrade left their building isolated and inaccessible.
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.
J. B. Metcalfe and wife commenced an action yesterday in the superior court to recover the sum of $10,000 from the city of Seattle for alleged damages. They insist in their complaint that they have suffered from the grading of Third street, between Cherry and James streets. The complaint sets forth that in July, 1889, the plaintiffs erected a fine block at the location named, and in conformity with the then-existing grade, but that, against their wishes and without their consent, the city council, on March 14, 1891, regraded the street so that their building now stands very much higher than the level of the street.
“The city council, on March 14, 1891, regraded the street so that their building now stands very much higher than the level of the street.”
Seattle’s dramatic regrading projects physically reshaped the city to suit modern transit and development, often leaving older buildings stranded above or below new street levels. This suit highlights the private cost of the city's 'growth machine' and the lasting tension between municipal development and property rights that persists in today's high-density zoning battles.
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