The Price of Panic: Mass Foreclosures in 1877 Seattle
As the territorial economy tightens, a single Sheriff’s notice reveals the vast, liquidated assets of early Seattle real estate speculators.
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.
In the District Court of the Third Judicial District of the Territory of Washington, holding terms at the city of Seattle, in King county: Sarah E. Benton and Wm. Benton, plaintiffs, vs. Renald Robinson and wife, defendants. Under and by virtue of a decree of foreclosure and order of sale, made and entered of record in the above-entitled District Court, on the 3d day of September A. D. 1877, wherein Sarah E. Benton and Wm. Benton, her husband, the plaintiffs, obtained a judgment against Renald Robinson and Fanny Robinson his wife, for the sum of $1,245 gold coin of the United States, with interest at 12 per cent per month, and costs taxed at $21.10, and attorney fee of $62.25. Public notice is hereby given that on Saturday, January 12, 1878, at the hour of 10 o'clock A.M., at the Courthouse door, in the city of Seattle, King county, I will sell the following described lots or parcels of land, to wit: Lots 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11 of block 2; lots 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 of block 4; lots 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 of block 7; lots 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 of block 8; lots 7 and 8 of block 11; lots 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, and 12 of block 13; lots 1 and 2 of block 15; lots 1, 2, 3, and 4 of block 20; and all of defendants' interest in blocks 3, 5, 6, 9, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, and 19 in what is known as Ward's addition to the city of Seattle. L. V. Wyckoff, Sheriff King County.
“Sarah E. Benton and Wm. Benton, her husband, the plaintiffs, obtained a judgment against Renald Robinson and Fanny Robinson his wife, for the sum of $1,245 gold coin.”
This 1877 legal notice documents the wholesale liquidation of 'Ward’s Addition'—an early example of the speculative real estate boom-and-bust cycles that have defined Seattle’s development. The crushing 12% monthly interest rate and the massive scale of the foreclosure echo the precarious nature of property ownership that continues to spark debate in modern, high-cost Seattle.
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