Free Shacks for the Taking
A condemned row of buildings in the downtown core is offered to anyone willing to haul them away.
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.
Do you want a whole row of buildings for nothing? Then see Building Inspector Hebblethwaite. He has been authorized by the owners of a lot of shacks on C street near Fifteenth to give them away to anyone who will take them off the ground. They have all been condemned. The property is owned by the Judson company.
“Do you want a whole row of buildings for nothing?”
While today’s city leaders struggle with the high cost of new development, this 1910 notice highlights a different era of urban turnover where condemned properties were simply cleared by moving them off-site. The 'shacks' mentioned were likely remnants of early wood-frame development in what is now a densely built-up part of downtown Tacoma.
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