The Ballard Y.M.C.A. Rebels Against Seattle
After the city association attempted to dissolve the Ballard branch, residents rallied to save the reading rooms from the saloons.
On Wednesday evening, Mr. George Carter, secretary of the Y.M.C.A. at Seattle, visited Ballard for the purpose of closing the branch association. Mr. Thomas Hauiston presided, and Mr. Carter during a lengthy address, gave a history of what the Seattle association had done for the branch at Ballard and expressed regret that the branch association must be closed. Much to Mr. Carter's surprise, however, there were many present who spoke in favor of the work, enumerated the benefits to the young men at Ballard and expressed their satisfaction with the reading rooms, which they declared were a great boon to the young men who had nowhere else to go except to the saloons. Indeed, so much interest was manifested in the association and so many liberal promises of support given that it was unanimously decided to continue the association upon a standing independent of the Seattle association. Fifty-five dollars was raised at once, and the association is upon a much better footing than ever before.
“The reading rooms... were a great boon to the young men who had nowhere else to go except to the saloons.”
This reflects the long-standing tension between the municipal center and the independent identity of Ballard, a neighborhood that maintained its own city charter until annexed by Seattle in 1907. The 'saloons vs. community space' debate is a classic trope of the 1890s reform era.
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