The Queen City’s Reputation Problem
A visiting soap manufacturer discovers that while rival cities like Portland and San Francisco love to trash-talk Seattle, the reality on the ground is far more impressive.
H. J. Jennes of Detroit, who is owner of the Jennes Perfumery works, one of the largest toilet soap manufacturers in the country, made a brief trip through Seattle yesterday. Mr. Jennes was on his way to meet his family at Tacoma, whence he will take them to Alaska and then over half the coast. In an interview with our reporter, he said: 'Seattle is the finest looking city I ever saw, but after seeing the spirit of your people, I don't wonder your neighbors are jealous. In San Francisco, they had nothing favorable to say about you. In Portland it was the same, and in Tacoma they told me Seattle was a suburb, but, of course, I knew that was not true. After hearing all the bad reports I was the most surprised man when I saw everything here. You call yourselves the Queen City of the Sound, and you have every right to the title. You have a right to feel proud. Were it not that I had so many interests in the East, I would put in a plant here or come here to live. I will not fail to set Eastern people straight when they talk of Seattle again.'
“In San Francisco, they had nothing favorable to say about you. In Portland it was the same, and in Tacoma they told me Seattle was a suburb.”
More than a century later, Seattle's relationship with its neighbors remains complex. The city's rapid growth and the 'jealousy' mentioned by Mr. Jennes still echo in modern regional debates over housing density, regional transit, and the city's self-appointed status as a global tech hub.
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