The Courthouse That Never Was

The county building has been found too small to accommodate the growing business of the county officers, and a courthouse is badly needed. There are no available funds to be used for such a building, but as the utmost economy has been exercised in administering the county affairs for the last year and a half, it is thought by the commissioners that from five to seven thousand dollars can be saved during the summer, which if rightly used will build a house that will answer all purposes for the next ten years. A block has been reserved on the high ridge between the Seattle Coal Company’s road and Belltown, which the owners propose to give to the county on certain conditions for courthouse purposes. If a cheap building is erected near the jail this year, and this block accepted and improved by the county, by the time this temporary structure is too small for the accommodation of the county business, we will be in a condition to build a creditable courthouse on this block, in the most conspicuous portion of the city, where it will be centrally located, as the city must extend to the northward as it increases in size.