The City Council’s Petty Snub of Seattle’s Founder
A scathing editorial exposes how local politicians, led by a councilman, used a mundane land plat filing to insult A.A. Denny, a pivotal figure in Seattle’s development.
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 document signed by Mr. Denny was filed with the city clerk for the 'plat of the Denny addition to the city of Seattle,' placed on his property, east of Mr. Yesler's. The plat is in clear and proper form, meeting in all respects the requirements of the law. It was made by T.M. Denny. Why this document, which is before the Council for acceptance, was withheld and subjected to very unusual treatment, is known to those who know that the action of the Council was a bit of petty—of course, well-underhanded and outright—mischief through those who are hidden in the background for them. Mr. Denny, there is to be no mistake about it, is a man whom this city government of Seattle should be the last to snub. He was one of the settlers upon this site, and from the beginning an active promoter of the town and its interests. In every great undertaking looking to the progress and independence of Seattle, he has been a leader. When the Northern Pacific railroad first gave Seattle the cold shoulder, there was a time when the fate of the city depended upon the nerves and liberality of a few men. Mr. Denny was among those who had faith in Seattle and who backed that faith by their works. This is the man whom our city government, at the dictation of one P.K. Siese, by accident a councilman, chose to sit at; this contemptible act comes with especially bad grace at a time when Mr. Denny has under consideration a plan to provide Seattle with her most direly needed: the finest hotel on the North Pacific Coast.
“This is the man whom our city government, at the dictation of one P.K. Siese, by accident a councilman, chose to sit at.”
This 1888 editorial echoes the long-standing friction in Seattle between civic founders/visionaries and the sometimes erratic machinery of municipal governance. Much like today's debates over developer influence and urban planning, the article highlights the tension between those building the city’s infrastructure and the petty politics of local office holders.
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