The Price of Panic: Seattle's 1878 Foreclosure Wave
A legal notice detailing the seizure of property in Seattle and King County reveals a landscape defined by debt, land disputes, and the brutal finality of the Sheriff’s gavel.
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 an execution issued out of the District Court of the Third Judicial District of Washington Territory, holding terms at the City of Seattle, in King County, on the 15th day of February, 1878... I have levied upon the property described in said decree... All of lots two (2) and three (3) in block numbered twenty-four (24) in that part of the City of Seattle laid out and platted by A. A. Denny, and known as A. A. Denny’s Addition to Seattle. I will sell to the highest bidder therefor, for cash, gold coin, at public auction, all the right, title, interest and equity of redemption of said defendants, Thomas J. Jamison and Eliza Jackson, his wife, Wm. Baunton, James Scott and Andrew Moore, or so much thereof as will satisfy said judgments, decrees, costs, attorney fees, interest, and accruing and increased costs.
“I will sell to the highest bidder therefor, for cash, gold coin, at public auction, all the right, title, interest and equity of redemption.”
In 1878, Seattle was a raw, expanding town where property was frequently liquidated through public auctions to satisfy creditors. Today’s housing market bears a haunting resemblance, as the same mechanics of debt, foreclosure, and land ownership continue to displace residents while developers and financial entities tighten their hold on the city's geography.
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