New Life for the Halstead Hotel
A longtime coal miner purchases a familiar local establishment at a public auction.
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.
The Halstead hotel was sold at auction last evening, the sale taking place at the front door of the hotel at 1:30 p.m., to Wm. Bradley, who was the highest bidder, at $12,150. The purchaser is an old coal miner 41 years of age, a native of Cheshire, near Manchester, England. He has been a coal miner for nearly 25 years, and has been employed at Carbonado for the last two years. He intends to run the hotel himself, having had experience as a landlord.
“The purchaser is an old coal miner 41 years of age... He intends to run the hotel himself, having had experience as a landlord.”
The transition of industrial workers into property owners and small business operators was a defining feature of Seattle's early economic life. This story reflects the era's rapid mobility, where a career in the grueling coal mines of Carbonado could provide the capital for a fresh start as an urban proprietor.
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