Seattle's Building Boom Hits the Streets
High rents and a rapidly growing population drive a citywide rush to build one-story retail stores.
Some of the recent announcements of new buildings to be erected in Seattle this season have drawn attention to the style of structures most in demand here. A gentleman who keeps well posted on the progress of building expressed himself freely a day or two since on the kind of buildings that pay the best just now. Speaking of the long row of one-story stores to be built by John Leary and Cyrus Walker between Madison and Spring streets, he said: 'That is just the kind of buildings needed in Seattle at the present time. There are not store-rooms enough, and store rent is high. After the fire everybody moved out into the suburbs, but there are so many streetcar lines now that everybody comes downtown to do shopping. The retail dealers see this and want to get into town themselves. This is what makes such a good demand for stores. Big office buildings do not pay as much as their owners desire, and a gentleman who owns vacant property will not put up a big office building. There are enough of these for the present, but he can put up neat one-story stores that will pay handsomely for a few years until more high buildings are demanded.'
“After the fire everybody moved out into the suburbs, but there are so many streetcar lines now that everybody comes downtown to do shopping.”
This 1893 report on the 'pressing demand' for store space—driven by the city's recovery from the Great Fire and the rise of streetcar connectivity—perfectly captures the early, rapid-fire urbanization of Seattle. The tension between building small-scale, high-yield retail and the city's eventual vertical evolution remains a recurring theme in the city’s ongoing struggle with density and affordability.
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