Tragedy in the Elevator Shaft
A building superintendent is crushed to death while performing routine maintenance in a busy downtown Seattle office building.
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.
Darius Horton, the superintendent of the York building at the northeast corner of Second and Cherry streets, was killed yesterday while being crushed under the elevator. Mr. Horton, a cousin of the building's owner Dexter Horton, had general charge of the facility. While attempting to oil the wheels in the elevator well, he was pinned when the cage descended. Passersby discovered his body after spotting his arm protruding from beneath the elevator. Despite attempts to move the cage, it remained wedged. When police and physicians finally reached the body, it was clear that Horton had been crushed instantly. Mr. Horton was 50 years old and a well-known, quiet man in Seattle. An inquest is scheduled for Monday.
“The elevator had crushed his head down in between his shoulders, and as the body was released it fell backward.”
Workplace safety in 1892 was notoriously unregulated, often leaving laborers to navigate dangerous machinery without protection. Today, while elevators are significantly safer, this incident highlights the enduring risks faced by building service workers in Seattle’s increasingly dense downtown core.
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