A Frontier Home on Second Street
In the winter of 1876, a simple advertisement captures the rapid development and domestic churn of a burgeoning Seattle.
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.
A December 9, 1876, notice offers one house and one lot on Second Street, between Seneca and University. The lot is described as 60 by 120 feet.
Applications are directed to R. J. Moore.
“One House and one lot 60x120 feet, located on 2nd Street, between Seneca and University.”
In 1876, 2nd and Seneca was a peripheral residential plot; today, that specific intersection sits at the heart of downtown Seattle's dense high-rise district. The ad serves as a quiet reminder that the struggle for space and the commodification of land in Seattle are foundational, not recent, conditions.
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