The Industrial Heart of Pioneer Seattle
A look at the bustling shops and specialized trades fueling the growth of the town, from ironworks to the newly opened brick storefronts on Front Street.
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.
The most thrifty little place on the coast just now is the town of Astoria. One of their local papers stated that there were nearly a hundred unfinished houses—the result of the rainy season. The cause of this recent prosperity is to be found much in the shifting of a portion of the grain shipping trade of Walla Walla and the Willamette from Portland to that point. The importance of Astoria as a manufacturing center dates from the establishment of the salmon canneries along the lower Columbia. This interest has developed within a few years from an output of a few thousand dollars to a trade of over two million dollars. The latest phase of the cannery business is the putting up of salmon for export to foreign countries. Having just started, the canneries are turning out many hundred heads of salmon per week. If one of these large canneries is worth a large lumber mill or other works for bringing ready cash into a town, there is no reason why the business might not be carried on as extensively and profitably in Seattle or at other points on the Sound. We are nearer to the great source of supply, and quite as accessible to the markets for manufactured products.
Meanwhile, in Seattle, the growth is visible on every corner. Frauenthal Bros have opened their new brick store next door to Jamieson's Jewelry Store, offering a fine stock of clothing, dry goods, and carpets. On Second Street, between Washington and Main, the Pioneer Wagon Shop is busy manufacturing and repairing, while John Sullivan’s shop on Commercial Street is stocked with toys and fancy goods in anticipation of the Christmas season.
“If one of these large canneries is worth a large lumber mill... there is no reason why the business might not be carried on as extensively and profitably in Seattle.”
This 1876 snapshot of Seattle captures the city in its infancy as a manufacturing and trade hub. The mention of new 'brick stores' on Front Street (now First Avenue) highlights the transition from wood-frame frontier town to a permanent city, a cycle of redevelopment and expansion that continues to define Seattle’s urban identity 150 years later.
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