The Rising Metropolis of the North
A traveler reflects on Seattle's explosive growth in 1883, from its coal-driven commerce to the 'Titanic' scale of its lumber mills.
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 was the name of an old Indian chief whose early history is of interest, as his name is given to the city that stands where his lodge once stood. It is spreading out wonderfully over a sightly ridge, beyond which two delightful lakes lie bosomed among wooded hills. Many things combine to build Seattle into an important city. Already its commerce is immense. They can ship a thousand tons per day of coal from mines tributary to its wharves. A narrow gauge railroad works the hills back of Lake Washington, where immense coal deposits exist. Seattle had about 3,000 inhabitants in 1880, and has 4,500 now. Three ocean steamers arrived within 24 hours while I was there. It has three daily newspapers, two of which receive and publish important news the same morning it appears in The New York Times. It is wonderful to see in such a place immense factories turning out furniture from hard-wood grown nearby; barrels to supply the growing needs of all the coast, lumber to be shipped to the furthest parts of the earth. Here, also, are great foundries and machine shops for turning out boilers and engines and making machinery for 'Sound' mills.
“It is wonderful to see in such a place immense factories turning out furniture from hard-wood grown nearby.”
This 1883 account captures Seattle at the precipice of its transition from a frontier town to an industrial powerhouse. The writer’s awe at the rate of growth—adding 1,500 people in just three years—strikingly echoes the rapid population booms that continue to define the city’s identity and housing pressures today.
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