The Real Estate Giveaway That Promised a 'Small Fortune'
In 1888, developers sold off 60 lots in Seattle with a high-stakes gambling hook: a chance to win a fully built cottage on your property.
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 60 choice residence lots, located in the growing direction of the city. An unprecedented offer: five elegantly finished, modern design cottages, ranging in value from $500 to $1,000 each, are to be given away with the property. Every purchaser secures a lot, and five out of the whole number secure houses with the lots. This is the greatest building enterprise ever inaugurated in Seattle, affording to each purchaser the full value of the original investment, and a small fortune in every five of the whole number. Jackson and Rainier Streets Addition is connected with the business center of Seattle by the Jackson Street Cable Railway. The cars will run every 20 minutes, and in less than three months the service will be adjusted so as to pass there every 10 minutes. The fare is only 5 cents. The title to Jackson and Rainier Streets Addition is guaranteed to be absolutely perfect, and everything is to be carried out precisely as advertised or money will be refunded.
“This is the greatest building enterprise ever inaugurated in Seattle, affording to each purchaser the full value of the original investment, and a small fortune in every five of the whole number.”
The aggressive marketing of 'Jackson and Rainier Streets Addition' highlights Seattle's long-standing history of rapid, speculative development tied to transit expansion. Today, the intersection of Jackson and Rainier remains a central transit hub, though the 'giveaway' culture of 19th-century land developers has been replaced by the modern-day struggle for affordable housing units in an increasingly dense urban core.
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