A Fireproof Infirmary for the Poor
After city officials refused to participate in a joint facility, the county moves forward with plans for a specialized, fireproof hospital at the poor farm.
As the city officials have practically refused to join hands with the county for the erection of a county and city hospital on the county poor farm, County Commissioner Fred Gasch has given up the idea of trying to lure them into the adoption of the plan, and the commissioners have had Architect W. A. Ritchie prepare new sketches for a smaller building to be erected by the county independent of the city. These sketches were submitted to the commissioners yesterday and were carefully inspected by them in company with Dr. Whiting, the resident physician for the poor farm. The sketch shows a plain, three-story brick structure, with some stone trimmings. The only woodwork will be the door frames and the window sash and frames. The joists will be steel and the floors, arches, partitions, ceilings and roof will be hollow tile. The floors will all be concrete and the walls finished in cement. This will make a building not only fireproof, but proof against vermin and the propagation of the germs of disease.
“This will make a building not only fireproof, but proof against vermin and the propagation of the germs of disease.”
Early Seattle infrastructure was often defined by these jurisdictional squabbles between city and county governments. Today, this location—formerly the poor farm—is likely part of the extensive modern medical corridor or repurposed civic land, though the anxiety over building standards and public health remains a persistent civic theme.
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