The Graveyard That Vanished: Seattle’s Urban Sprawl Swallows the Dead
As new dwellings rise on Front Street and Stewart Square, the old burial ground is being paved over, erasing a physical link to the city's earliest days.
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.
J. Deering is building a two-story dwelling house on the corner of Stewart and Second streets. From what Mr. Smith informs us we infer that the hill upon which was formerly the old Seattle graveyard will be almost entirely built over before the winter months. There are also four new dwellings going up on Front street between the railroad and Belltown.
This brief notice captures a pivotal moment in Seattle's urbanization: the literal paving over of its history. The 'old Seattle graveyard' likely refers to the early burial grounds near Pioneer Square or First Hill, which were frequently moved or filled in as the city expanded rapidly after the 1889 fire (though this article is from 1876, showing the earlier pressure). Today, that specific corner of Stewart and Second is part of the dense downtown core, a stark reminder of how quickly Seattle transformed from a frontier town to a metropolis, often at the expense of its physical landmarks.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.