The Waterfront Land Wars
A railroad company wins an eviction suit against waterfront 'squatters,' highlighting the precarious state of living for those occupying valuable tide lands.
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 trial of two ejectment suits brought by the Columbia & Puget Sound Railroad Company against Charles Dunton and Margaret Christopher was the only business done in the civil department of the superior court yesterday. The property in dispute consists of portions of lots 9 and 10 in block 90, Bell & Denny’s first addition, lying on the waterfront between Bell and Battery streets, near Manning’s wharf. These defendants are among the several hundred squatters living on the railroad’s right-of-way. These residents are allowed to build shanties on the property for a small rent, though they are known to resist rent collection with brooms and hot water. The railroad company argued its title through a chain of deeds, while the defendants claimed the land was tide land and the company’s plat illegal. The jury decided in favor of the railroad, granting them possession and back rent.
“These squatters are allowed to build their shanties and live on the property on payment of very small rent... and they are in the habit of resisting the collection of even that not by brawls, but by brooms, hot water and other housewife weapons.”
This 1891 struggle over tide lands and railroad right-of-way mirrors contemporary Seattle debates about the ownership and privatization of the waterfront. Even a century later, the conflict between corporate property interests and the informal housing of the city’s working class remains a central tension in Seattle’s development.
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