Court Orders Sale of Denny's Addition Lots, 1878
A wave of court-ordered property auctions signals a struggling post-boom economy in the late 1870s.
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.
By virtue of a decree and order of sale issued out of the District Court of the Third Judicial District of Washington Territory, holding terms at Seattle, in King County, on the 15th day of February, A.D. 1878, in the case number 354, wherein James Crawford and Wm. A. Harrington, partners, doing business under the firm name of Crawford & Harrington, are plaintiffs, and Thomas J. Jackson and Mrs. Jackson, his wife, Wm. Baunton, James Scott and Andrew Moore are defendants... I have levied upon the property described in said decree... lots two (2) and three (3) in block numbered twenty-four (24) in that part of the City of Seattle, platted by A.A. Denny, and known as A.A. Denny’s Addition to Seattle. And now, by virtue of said decree and order of sale, on Monday the 6th day of May, A.D. 1878, at the hour of 10 o’clock A.M., in front of the Court House door in said City of Seattle, I will sell to the highest bidder thereof, for cash, gold coin, all the right, title, interest and equity of redemption of said defendants.
“I will sell to the highest bidder thereof, for cash, gold coin, all the right, title, interest and equity of redemption.”
This 1878 account captures a brutal snapshot of Seattle's early financial instability, where local property owners were routinely wiped out by court-ordered liquidations. Much like the boom-and-bust cycles that continue to shape the city's housing landscape today, these sheriff's sales highlight the precariousness of ownership during territorial economic downturns.
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