The $25,000 House That Wasn't: Seattle’s First Sewer Bidding War
As the city prepares to build its modern sewer system, contractors are already fighting over the lucrative contracts, revealing how quickly public infrastructure deals become private fortunes.
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 bills for building the new sewer and water systems have been forwarded to the City Council. The amounts requested are as follows:
Sewer System: A. Dodge: $17,000 T. Ryan: $13,000 N.C. McLaughlin: $16,000 B.J. Licklider: $18,000 E. Mott: $15,000 Nicholas Fox: $9,000
Water System: L. Young: $12,000 O.J. Brickson: $7,000 H.H. & J.L. Lee: $11,000 Wm. H. Croft: $10,000
The bills will be forwarded to the City Council, who will award the contract.
In 1906, Seattle was just beginning its massive push to modernize its infrastructure, moving away from open ditches and private wells to a unified city-wide system. The bidding process for these contracts—worth hundreds of thousands in today's money—was a high-stakes game that determined which local developers would profit from the city's growth. Today, as Seattle continues to grapple with aging water mains and new sewer requirements for green building standards, the tension between public need and private contractor profit remains just as sharp.
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