A Home for Seattle's Working Women
A newly opened residence aims to provide affordable, safe housing for the growing class of professional business women in the city.
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. Tester, 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. The association recognizes that the business girl of this year is likely to be called into a partnership of homemaking, and that the self-command gained by contact with business methods is a necessary part of the training for the complicated obligations of a well-ordered home. The association has spent much time and money in its equipment and invites all young ladies without the parental roof to come and look the house over. You will find large halls, pleasant dining rooms, neat and airy chambers, and a sewing room with a machine. 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 homemaking.”
This 1894 effort to build secure, dignified housing for single working women highlights a perennial Seattle struggle: how to house a rapidly expanding, mobile workforce. Today, this location—the corner of Republican and Poplar—sits deep within the dense South Lake Union neighborhood, where the 'business girl' of the 1890s would likely be replaced by tech workers in a vastly different housing market.
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