Ballard’s Big Bid for the Great Northern
A town of 200 citizens gathers to discuss a high-stakes proposal to bring the railway's car shops to their shores.
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.
A mass meeting of the citizens of Ballard was held on Monday night in the opera house to consider ways and means of securing the location of the car shops of the Great Northern railway at Ballard. The meeting was called by the mayor, who was induced to do so by a proposition submitted to the city council by the West Coast Improvement Company. This company believed if a site of sixty acres were offered to the Great Northern railway that company might be induced to locate the car shops at Ballard. The West Coast Improvement Company agreed to donate or secure thirty acres, and requested the citizens of Ballard, through the city council, to donate or secure the donation of thirty more acres. The meeting was well attended, some 200 or more representative citizens being present. Mayor A. E. Pretty called the meeting to order and stated its object. G. W. Stanton was elected chairman and Prof. J. M. Laybue secretary of the meeting. The speeches were short and pithy, each speaker being limited to five minutes. One or two expressed doubts of being able to raise the necessary bonus, but the general opinion was that it could be done without much trouble. The meeting throughout was harmonious and enthusiastic, and was brought to a close by the adoption of a resolution which asked the city council to co-operate with the West Coast Improvement Company to induce the Great Northern railroad to locate its shops at Ballard.
“One or two expressed doubts of being able to raise the necessary bonus, but the general opinion was that it could be done without much trouble.”
Ballard was an independent city fighting for its own identity and industrial future in 1893, long before it was annexed by Seattle. Today, Ballard is a highly sought-after neighborhood where industrial heritage clashes with high-density housing development.
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