Fatal Tumble at the Waco House
A foreman, respected for his long years of service and honesty, dies after an accidental fall down a lodging house light shaft.
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.
James Louden, foreman for contractor James Parke, died at the Waco House on Commercial Street yesterday morning from injuries received in a fall early Sunday. The interior of the Waco House, like many lodging houses in this city, has an open light well in the center running from the second floor to the top. Louden, who roomed on the third floor, started to bed alone and in some inexplicable manner fell over the railing to the floor below, a distance of fifteen feet. He struck his left shoulder and side of the face, but initially appeared to recover until he was suddenly seized with fatal vomiting. Born in Glasgow, Scotland, fifty-six years ago, Louden had been in Seattle for about ten years. He was a quiet, unassuming man, leaving two married sisters in Glasgow.
“In some inexplicable manner fell over the railing to the floor below, a distance of fifteen feet.”
This tragedy at a lodging house in Pioneer Square highlights the precarious nature of SRO (Single Room Occupancy) housing in 1890s Seattle, a precursor to the density and safety issues the city still grapples with in its downtown corridors today.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.