Serial Arson at the Western Mill
A night watchman thwarts an attempt to burn down a Lake Union mill, marking the third suspicious fire in a single week.
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.
An attempt was made at midnight about one week ago to burn the Western mill on Lake Union. The night watchman discovered the blaze in the machine shop and a mysterious person in hiding, and he turned in an alarm from Box 17. The fire department responded promptly and the flames were extinguished, saving much damage. Officers of the precinct state that the fire was the work of an incendiary. This is the third fire in one week, and the authorities believe that the fire is the work of someone who holds a grudge against the proprietors of the mill and is resolved to keep the mill on fire. A detective will be assigned to that neighborhood to search for the guilty person or persons.
“The authorities believe that the fire is the work of someone who holds a grudge against the proprietors of the mill and is resolved to keep the mill on fire.”
This 1899 report of targeted arson against a mill captures the volatile, often lawless atmosphere of industrializing Seattle. Today, Lake Union remains a center of intense, often fraught development, though current neighborhood tensions are more likely to manifest as heated battles over zoning and displacement than at the tip of a match.
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