The Tide Flat Tug-of-War
A complex, multi-year legal battle over a Ballard sawmill exposes the murky nature of land titles on Seattle's waterfront.
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 property of the Salmon Bay Lumber Company at Ballard, which has been in litigation for longer than the Denny Hotel, is in court again. The case is before Judge Humes to settle the question of ownership, a suit having been brought by C. C. Coleman to recover possession of the property from Joseph Sinclair and others. The property is situated on the tide flats near Ballard, and with the land on which it stands, is valued at about $15,000. In June 1890, the land was conveyed by the West Coast Improvement Company to Hyte and Anderson under a contract for its sale. Soon after, they sold their interest to Chittenden, and Chittenden conveyed the property to the Salmon Bay Lumber Company, composed of Chittenden, Lindsay, and C. C. Coleman. Various creditors later foreclosed on the property, and after multiple transfers, sheriff's sales, and competing judgment claims, the question of ownership remains trapped in a legal quagmire. The title is seemingly not clear in any of the parties, and the court is now attempting to resolve the ownership of these tide flat claims.
“The usual question of the ownership of tide flats has been raised, and the title, to look at it from the outside, is seemingly not clear in any of the parties.”
The legal uncertainty surrounding Ballard's tide flats in 1893 mirrors modern-day debates over Seattle's shoreline ownership and the rights of private developers versus public interest. Today, those same areas, long since filled in, are prime commercial real estate, yet the ghost of 'tide flat' litigation continues to haunt urban development in the city.
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