The Great Seattle Street-Cleaning Decree
A desperate 1888 city ordinance threatens property owners with fines if they fail to scrub the filth from their sidewalk frontages.
Notice is hereby given that the city council of Seattle has passed an ordinance requiring all property owners to clean the sidewalk in front of their lots of all filth, dirt, or rubbish. In case the owner refuses or neglects to perform the work, the street commissioner shall perform the same, and the cost of such cleaning shall be charged to the owner. This must be done by the 20th of August, 1888. By order of the city council.
“In case the owner refuses or neglects to perform the work, the street commissioner shall perform the same, and the cost of such cleaning shall be charged to the owner.”
Long before contemporary debates over public space, sanitation, and street maintenance in downtown Seattle, property owners were being legally mandated to maintain the cleanliness of their own frontages. The 1888 ordinance reflects the early, frantic attempts of a rapidly growing frontier town to project an image of civilization through the basic act of sweeping the sidewalk.
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