A Safe Haven for Seattle’s Working Women
A new boarding hotel opens in North Seattle to provide dignified housing for the city's growing workforce of business women and students.
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 Sarah B. Yesler, a handsome and well-appointed hotel, has just finished its first year. Elegantly furnished with all the comforts and conveniences of a modern private residence and centrally located on the North Seattle cable line at the corner of Republican and Poplar streets, it is now under the supervision of Mrs. Hammond. This institution was projected to meet the needs of women and girls coming to the city on business or pleasure, and for the business women of our city—teachers, stenographers, dressmakers, operators, and clerks. Many of these women have been enabled to push their way along lines of industry through honesty and fidelity. A society of home-owning and home-loving women recognizes that the business girl of this year is likely to be called into a partnership of home-making. The association has spent much time and money in its erection and equipment, and while it has enjoyed only light patronage, they are firm in the belief that when better understood it will enjoy favorable support. Young ladies without a parental roof are cordially invited to visit the house, which offers large halls, pleasant dining rooms, neat and airy chambers, a sewing room with a machine, and large, beautifully furnished parlors, including a new piano. Charges are from $3 to $5 per week.
“The business girl of this year... is liable before its close to be called into a partnership of home-making, and that the self-command gained by contact with business methods is no mean part of the necessary training for the complicated obligations of a well-ordered home.”
In 1893, Seattle's women were navigating a new economic landscape, leading to the creation of gender-specific, supportive housing. Today, Seattle faces a similar, albeit more severe, struggle to provide safe, affordable housing for working individuals, illustrating the long history of the city as a place where the cost of a roof over one’s head defines one's ability to participate in urban life.
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