Seattle's 1878 Auction of Property for Unpaid Taxes
When the city of Seattle moved to liquidate the private property of its citizens to cover a year of unpaid taxes.
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, 1875, I will sell at public auction, at the Court House in the city of Seattle, the real estate described in the following list for the delinquent city tax for the year 1877, unless the same be sooner redeemed by the owners or their agents. The sale will commence on Monday, April 1st, 1878, at 10 o'clock A.M., and continue from day to day between the hours of 10 o'clock A.M. and 5 o'clock P.M., until each parcel of real estate shall have been sold or offered for sale. Geo. D. Hill, Treasurer of King County and Collector of Delinquent City Taxes.
“I will sell at public auction, at the Court House in the city of Seattle, the real estate described in the following list for the delinquent city tax for the year 1877.”
In 1878, Seattle was a small, frontier town struggling to formalize its tax base, with lists of delinquent citizens published openly in the local press. Today, while property tax collection has moved from the courthouse steps to automated administrative systems, the tension between civic funding and individual property ownership remains a persistent, high-stakes pressure point in Seattle's rapidly densifying real estate market.
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