Seattle’s Hotel Crunch: A City Desperate for Room
A reporter tours Seattle’s hotels in 1883 to see if the 'Queen City' can house the incoming tide of immigrants, only to find packed rooms and frustrated proprietors.
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.
In order to give the outside world some idea of our hotel accommodations, a reporter was detailed yesterday to call at the principal public houses and find out the number that each could care for, and also the additional arrangements making for the immense immigration soon to flow in upon us. At the Arlington, they have 65 sleeping rooms but accommodate 200 persons in a pinch. Crossing Commercial Street to the Minnesota House, the proprietors mentioned they lodge 40 persons but could do more if the landlord would authorize building improvements. At the Hotel Brunswick, the proprietors are arranging to increase facilities by June. Margaret Sullivan of the 'Civic House' noted she had 15 rooms but often accommodated 45, lamenting that she could not get a lease of the ground to build a larger, respectable house. As darkness approached, the reporter noted that even with the ongoing construction of the New Oriental, the city faced a severe struggle to house the summer crowds.
“If I could get the ground room I would build a nice, large, respectable looking house, but I can't get a lease of the ground, so I'll have to do the best I can.”
This 1883 report captures the frantic, early-growth pains of a city turning into a boomtown, mirroring today's Seattle as it struggles to reconcile rapid population growth with a severe housing inventory shortage. Back then, landlords were hesitant to invest without leases; today, the regulatory and development hurdles are more complex, but the underlying anxiety of a city physically unable to accommodate its own growth remains a familiar narrative.
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