Seattle’s First Steam Fire Engine
Facing a growing city's vulnerability, Seattle’s leadership authorized a massive expenditure in 1878 to modernize the local fire brigade.
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.
An ordinance to provide a steam fire engine for the city of Seattle. The City of Seattle does ordain as follows: Sec. 1. That the Mayor of the City of Seattle be, and he is hereby authorized to enter into a contract with P. B. Silsby & Co., of Seneca Falls, New York, to furnish one steam fire engine for the use of said city, by the 1st of January, 1879. The purchase price for the said steam fire engine shall be $4,600, payable on the delivery and acceptance of said engine: $1,200 on the first day of January, 1879, with interest thereon at the rate of nine per cent per annum from the first day of January, 1878; $1,700 on the first day of January, 1880, with interest thereon at the rate of nine per cent per annum from the first day of January, 1878; and $1,700 on the first day of January, 1881, with interest thereon at the rate of nine per cent per annum from the first day of January, 1878. Sec. 2. On the delivery and acceptance of said engine, the City Council of the City of Seattle will deliver to P. B. Silsby & Co., or to their order, a certificate of indebtedness for the deferred payments of said engine, payable to them or their order.
“That the Mayor of the City of Seattle be, and he is hereby authorized to enter into a contract with P. B. Silsby & Co., of Seneca Falls, New York, to furnish one steam fire engine.”
In 1878, Seattle was rapidly transforming from a frontier outpost into an urban center, necessitating professional civic infrastructure like steam-powered firefighting technology. Today, Seattle continues to grapple with the tension between the costs of essential municipal services and the fiscal constraints of a rapidly growing population.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.