The Town That Moved Four Miles for the Railroad
When the Northern Pacific bypassed old Yakima in 1884, it didn't just build a new town—it moved the old one, buildings and all.
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 the winter and spring of 1884-1885, over 100 buildings in Yakima were moved on trucks and rollers to the new townsite of North Yakima, four miles distant. The Northern Pacific railroad offered to give citizens as many lots in the new town as they possessed in the old, and provided for the moving of their buildings at no cost to the owners. Hotels, a bank, and other business houses continued to do their usual business while en route. This stroke of policy by the railroad definitely settled opposition to the corporation, giving North Yakima a year's growth in only 90 days. By act of the state legislature in 1917, the city was permitted to drop the 'North' from its name, and the older town was renamed Union Gap.
“Over 100 buildings were moved on trucks and rollers, hotels, a bank, and other business houses doing their usual business en route.”
This 1923 report on Yakima’s literal physical relocation highlights the immense, often coercive, power railroad monopolies held over the geography of the American West. Today, transit-oriented development is planned via policy and zoning, but in 1884, the sheer logistics of dragging entire bank buildings across the sagebrush served as the ultimate urban renewal.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.