1888 Seattle Land Sale Included Ten Cottage Prizes
A real estate development in South Seattle offered prospective buyers not just a plot of land, but a literal chance to win a 'Queen Anne' cottage in a public drawing.
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.
Jackson and Rainier Streets Addition is one of the largest, best-located, and most desirable tracts ever placed upon the market, consisting of 110 choice residence lots. In an unprecedented offer, ten elegantly finished, modern-design cottages, ranging in value from $750 to $1,000 each, are to be given away with the property. Every purchaser secures a lot, and ten out of the whole number secure houses with the lots. The price of lots is a uniform $200 each. The drawing for lots and houses will take place on August 15th, 1888, under the supervision of three prominent citizens. A boy or girl not selected by the purchasers of lots will proceed to draw the cards from the boxes. The title to Jackson and Rainier Streets Addition is guaranteed to be absolutely perfect, and the building of these houses will create homes for ten families and enhance the value of all remaining lots.
“Every purchaser secures a lot, and ten out of the whole number secure houses with the lots... The greatest building enterprise ever inaugurated in Seattle.”
This 1888 advertisement for a 'Jackson and Rainier' development captures the frantic, speculative energy of early Seattle, when land companies were eager to drive expansion into the city's hills. Today, the location—likely near the modern Jackson St corridor—remains a central focus of intense debate over density, housing costs, and the ongoing struggle to provide affordable options for families in a booming city.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.