Seattle's Central Market Burns in the City's Largest Fire
A night blaze destroys the Central Market building, kills a lineman, and leaves hundreds of commission merchants and market gardeners ruined.
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.
SEATTLE, July 19.—The largest fire in the history of the city broke out about 9 o'clock tonight, and before it was extinguished destroyed property worth $500,000, leaving in ruins the Central Market building, the finest in the country. In addition to its purpose as a market, it was used by 350 commission merchants, stands and 100 market gardeners. The structure was entirely destroyed. Thirty horses and cows and some hogs were burned. The fire spread to a livery stable, store and several residences, which were destroyed; a number of other business and private buildings were damaged. The only fatality resulting from the fire was the death of Myron Finney, a lineman of the General Electric Company, who came in contact with a live electric wire.
“The largest fire in the history of the city broke out about 9 o'clock tonight, and before it was extinguished destroyed property worth $500,000.”
Seattle's commercial core burned repeatedly in the 1880s and 1890s, and the Central Market fire shows how one night could wipe out the food-distribution hub for hundreds of vendors. The city's later attachment to public-market space, including Pike Place Market, grew partly from memories of such losses. Fire risk and market resilience still shape how Seattle thinks about its downtown.
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