The Strict Covenants of Renton Hill
Developers at Renton Hill market their new neighborhood to an elite class, promising that restrictive covenants and minimum home prices will keep out 'undesirables.'
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.
When deciding upon the very important particulars of where and how you shall build your home, there are many points which need careful attention. The immediate surroundings of the homesite come into consideration first; then the question of accessibility; then the general character of the neighborhood; then the cost of building and how you shall build. Renton Hill possesses in a remarkable degree every essential that a careful home-builder desires. Its location is pre-eminently desirable from every point of view. It is directly accessible to the very best car service in the city—the Madison-street cable—a service that was superior to the unusual difficulties of the snow blockade. The character of the residents who will build in Renton Hill is sufficiently guaranteed by the restrictions which we place upon the sale of the property. We positively will not sell to undesirable residents. We sell only to persons who will erect homes at once. Lots are sold only to bona fide home-builders and are not handled by speculators. The smallest lot dimensions are 60x120 feet. Houses are not to be erected closer than 25 feet to the front line of lot. 'Cheap' houses will not be permitted. The minimum price on homes, while not extraordinarily large, is of sufficient size to guarantee the character of dwellings which will be erected. The streets in Renton Hill are full 70 feet wide, with a provision for parkage at the sidewalk edge. The matter of the cost of a home is satisfactorily solved under our offer to home-builders. It is the most liberal installment proposition that has yet been advanced in Seattle.
“We positively will not sell to undesirable residents.”
This advertisement showcases the birth of the exclusionary zoning practices and restrictive covenants that shaped Seattle’s residential landscape for decades. While the developers marketed it as 'guaranteeing character,' such language was a common tool for economic and social segregation, themes that remain at the heart of today's debates over density, affordability, and the 'neighborhood character' argument.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.