Seattle’s Final Resting Place
How a fraternal order secured a new burial ground for the city's future.
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.
Some weeks ago, Seattle Lodge No. 7, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, purchased ten acres of land three and one-half miles north of Mill Street. This land they will shortly clear and lay off in lots for a cemetery. The land is dry and well situated for a cemetery, and is reached from this city by a road which follows Front Street to the northern limits of the city, then in an almost straight line runs into the telegraph road. This road is usually dry, and in good condition for travel, summer and winter. A portion of the cemetery lots will be reserved for the order, and some will be sold to persons not members of the order. The whole will be protected and kept in order by the Lodge perpetually.
“The land is dry, and well situated for a cemetery, and is reached from this city by a road which follows Front street to the northern limits of the city.”
In the 1870s, establishing a permanent, managed cemetery was a major civic infrastructure project for a growing frontier town. Today, Seattle's relationship with land use remains dominated by questions of 'highest and best use,' though the debate has shifted from burial grounds to housing density in the very districts described here.
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