The Sarah B. Yesler Hotel Opens its Doors
A new institution for working women, championed by the city's society women and funded by Henry L. Yesler, officially opens to a crowd of one thousand.
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.
The Sarah B. Yesler hotel was thrown open to the public on Wednesday last. It stands as a monument to the nobility of character of the society women of this city. They have labored with every possible difficulty ahead, and now see that their noble efforts were not expended in vain. It will stand forever as one of the proud institutions of the city, and young women who feel the dignity of labor cannot do better than to encourage the work by going there and taking advantage of all that the Sarah B. Yesler hotel offers. The reception given on Wednesday afternoon and evening was a great success. Fully a thousand persons were in attendance, and there was not a single visitor who did not express the warmest admiration for what the women of Seattle had been able to accomplish. Many a heartfelt blessing, too, was bestowed silently on Mr. Henry L. Yesler, whose liberal contribution of the furniture had made the early opening of the hotel possible.
“It will stand forever as one of the proud institutions of the city, and young women who feel the dignity of labor cannot do better than to encourage the work.”
The Sarah B. Yesler Hotel was an early effort to address the housing needs of working-class women in a rapidly growing city. Today, Seattle faces a much more severe crisis of housing accessibility and affordability, echoing these Victorian-era efforts to support the dignity and independence of laborers.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.