The False Alarm That Struck Fear in a Seattle Neighborhood
A frame building caught fire at the corner of 31st Avenue and Cherry Street, sparking fears that victims were trapped inside.
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.
A frame dwelling at the corner of 31st Avenue and Cherry Street was burned to the ground early Sunday morning. The building was vacated by a recent tenant, who was away at the time. The loss will reach $1,000. The rumors that several women and children were burned to death proved to be unfounded.
“The rumors that several women and children were burned to death proved to be unfounded.”
Today, 31st and Cherry in Seattle’s Central District is a quiet, settled intersection far from the wooden shacks that dominated the early city. This snippet captures a classic 'scare' of the era—the panic over rumored casualties in a structure fire that, in hindsight, was merely a property loss.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.