The Squatter’s Shack on the Waterfront
A railroad company wins its eviction battle against a man living on a harbor spit.
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 ejectment suit of the Lake Shore Railroad against the squatters on the sand spit, in which Jacob Davidson was respondent, was concluded in Judge Hanford’s court yesterday. The judge delivered a lengthy oral opinion affirming the right of the railroad company to possession and granting an order that the respondent should yield possession within ten days. The judge held that Louis S. Rice, through whom Davidson claimed the right of possession, was an employee of the railroad and lived on the spit in a shack built by the company. He was placed there to protect the company's tools and material. Davidson had loaned money to Rice and furnished him supplies, receiving a bill of sale for his improvements on the spit as security, which formed the basis of his claim. The court ruled the land was unsurveyed public land, not tidelands, and belonged to the railroad company by virtue of its open, notorious, and uninterrupted possession. Rice had no right to convey the land, as he was merely a tenant and employee. Furthermore, the land was not subject to entry under government land laws, as it had been specifically reserved for building the city.
“Rica had no right to convey the land to any one, he being there simply as a tenant and employe of the railroad company, any more than a hired hand on a ranch could dispose of the ranch.”
This 1891 case highlights the early legal battles over Seattle’s industrial waterfront, an area that would be transformed by decades of regrading and development. The tension between private corporate control of the shoreline and the rights of individuals living there remains a haunting precursor to the modern debates over Seattle’s waterfront access and property rights.
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