The Great Seattle Land Foreclosure of 1878
A sweeping list of hundreds of local property owners faced with losing their land to the county for unpaid taxes, signaling the precarious nature of early Seattle real estate.
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.
Under and by virtue of an Act of the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Washington, approved November 9th, 1877, I will sell at public auction at the Court House in the City of Seattle, for delinquent county, school, and territorial taxes for the year 1877, the real estate described in the following list. Unless the taxes be sooner redeemed by the persons to whom they are taxed, or their agent, I will also sell all the land heretofore sold to the county for delinquent taxes for the years 1875 and 1876, and which have not yet been redeemed. The sale will commence on Monday, April 1, 1878, at 10 o'clock a.m., and will continue from day to day, between the hours of 10 o'clock a.m. and 5 o'clock p.m., until all such real estate shall have been sold or twice offered for sale. Geo. D. Hill, Sheriff of King Co., and Collector of delinquent county taxes.
“I will sell at public auction at the Court House in the City of Seattle, for delinquent county, school, and territorial taxes... all such real estate shall have been sold.”
This 1878 tax roll acts as a 'who's who' of early Seattle developers and landholders, many of whom were struggling to hold onto acreage during a period of economic instability. It serves as a reminder that Seattle's landscape has been shaped by cycles of speculative boom and tax-driven bust for over 140 years.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.