Mayor Struve Disputes Plummer's Waterfront Land Claim
Mayor H. G. Struve acts against a squatter who fenced off city-claimed land on the Seattle waterfront.
Mayor H. G. Struve reported to the Common Council that on the night of June 21st, George Plummer, with a force of artisans, enclosed a strip of land on the waterfront near Commercial Street, claiming it as his own despite the city's long-standing assertion that the land was part of King Street. Plummer had erected a building on the site, which sits between high and low water marks—a zone the city argues is public property held in trust. Mayor Struve, citing precedents like 'Mayor of Mobile vs. Eslava' and the Code of Washington Territory, argued that Plummer had no valid claim as a riparian proprietor, especially as the deed he held from D.S. Maynard was defectively acknowledged and related to land Maynard did not own. The city, having previously allowed the Seattle & Walla Walla Railroad to drive piles there, viewed Plummer’s actions as an illegal encroachment. The Mayor recommended the city council decide whether to continue the prosecution of Plummer for obstructing a public highway or pursue other legal remedies, while noting that he had already discontinued other related arrests to prevent civil disorder.
“The forcible taking of lands under tide waters for speculative purposes, without license from the public and without the consent of riparian proprietors, should be strongly discountenanced.”
This 1883 dispute over the 'tide lands' captures the chaotic early days of Seattle’s shoreline development, where ownership was often fluid and legally contested. Today’s debates over public access to the Seattle waterfront and the remnants of historic tide land ownership patterns still reflect this early struggle to define where private interest ends and public space begins.
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