A 'Mantraps' Warning: Building Collapses on South Third
A recently renovated shop collapses into kindling just minutes after workers vacate the premises.
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.
Yesterday afternoon a small frame building on South Third street, near Main, utterly collapsed and resolved itself into kindling wood. It had but recently been raised to conform to the new grade and had been in a great measure rebuilt. It was to have been used as a blacksmith shop by Benson and Buh, and those gentlemen were engaged in moving into it at the time of the accident. They had just placed a portion of their tools in position, and had left the building less than five minutes before the accident. Their escape was a most fortunate one, and they may congratulate themselves accordingly. This should be a lesson to property owners in that vicinity. There are too many buildings in the city constructed in so flimsy and cheap a manner as to be mere man-traps. This should be neither tolerated nor allowed. Regard should be had for human life, even if the pocket of the builder suffers. There is absolutely no excuse for such an accident as that which happened yesterday.
“There are too many buildings in the city constructed in so flimsy and cheap a manner as to be mere man-traps.”
The late 19th-century rush to regrade and build quickly led to the 'man-trap' architecture the Post-Intelligencer warned about. Today, Seattle continues to grapple with the tension between rapid construction and the necessity for building safety standards.
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