The City’s Great Reshaping
Massive earth-moving projects on the hills of Seattle are transforming the landscape, burying the old city to make room for the new.
The work on the street regrades is being pushed with a vigor that is remarkable. The work is at present confined to that section which lies between Fourth and Ninth streets. Keeping employed about forty men and ten or more teams, all of which are now engaged in filling the street just above Ninth. On that street, the principal work is being done between Madison and Columbia. A tramway has been constructed from the side of the hill to the point where the work of filling is being pushed forward, and small cars are constantly running back and forth, carrying dirt which is dumped into the hollow with a vigor that threatens to bury out of sight a number of Chinese houses which chance to stand in the way. How it would puzzle the antiquarian of the future to discover an Oriental Pompeii beneath one of the thoroughfares of the Queen City!
“How it would puzzle the antiquarian of the future to discover an Oriental Pompeii beneath one of the thoroughfares of the Queen City!”
The massive regrade projects of the late 19th century literally carved away Seattle's original hills, a precursor to the relentless real-estate development cycles that continue to redefine the city's topography today. The mention of 'Chinese houses' being buried under the debris serves as a stark reminder of the erasure of marginalized communities during the city's rapid expansion.
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