The Rising Forests of Belltown
A 1875 dispatch captures a neighborhood in metamorphosis, as the deep woods of Belltown are rapidly cleared to make way for cozy cottages and the expansion of 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.
In looking back over the year, we find a tremendous stride has been taken in search of progress. In no portion of the city is this rapid growth more noticeable than in the vicinity of that suburban adjunct known as Belltown. In taking a stroll over in that section, we were agreeably surprised to notice what a sudden and favorable change so short a time had wrought. The 'neck of woods' between the railroad and Belltown proper has nearly faded away; since last spring, lawns have been cleared where the tall forest had stood for centuries, and neat, cozy cottages have sprung up on every hand. We counted thirty-two of them, all of which have been erected in that immediate vicinity during the last nine months. They have an air of comfort and permanence; their owners evidently built them to live in—built them for homes. We noticed many of the residents busily engaged in constructing neat garden fences about their lots, in grubbing out the stumps and cleaning away their yards, and next summer we expect to see these thrifty proprietors in possession of attractive flower and vegetable gardens. The noise of the woodman's ax and the crash of falling trees greet our ears from the fringe of forest that skirts the town and from the expanse of timber on the southern and western slopes of the hill, showing that the growth of the city is still progressing in that direction.
“The 'neck of woods' between the railroad and Belltown proper has nearly faded away; since last spring, lawns have been cleared where the tall forest had stood for centuries.”
Today's Belltown is a dense urban center, but this report from 1875 reveals a neighborhood defined by the same rapid 'growth' that drives contemporary Seattle politics. The struggle to turn 'a neck of woods' into a permanent residential area echoes the city's perpetual battle between preservation and expansion.
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