The Oriental Hotel Burns to the Ground
A pre-dawn fire claims a downtown landmark, leaving one man severely injured and a widow without her business.
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.
About 4 o'clock this morning a fire broke out in the Oriental Hotel, on Second street near Cherry. The fire originated in the kitchen and spread very slowly. Engine No. 1 was out and played two streams upon the flames. By 4 o'clock the fire was well under control. The hotel is a total loss. It belonged to a widow lady, Mrs. N. Louis, and was insured for $1,700. The furniture was nearly all removed. A man named Dudley was severely injured by the falling upon him of a heavy glass door.
“The hotel is a total loss.”
The intersection of Second and Cherry remains a central hub in Seattle, though the wooden structures that dominated the skyline in 1883 have long since been replaced by brick and steel high-rises. This fire highlights the constant existential threat posed to early Seattle's largely wood-frame, dense downtown by primitive heating and kitchen systems.
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