A Home for Books Above the Liquor Store
After years of neglect, the Seattle Public Library relocates to a more central, if modest, home on Front Street—sparking a debate over the city's duty to provide spaces for 'public culture' over saloons.
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 few years ago, the liberality of Mr. Horton and other public-spirited citizens provided the city with a very creditable nucleus for a public library, but lately, by reason of indifference and neglect, it has not thrived as it should. Some changes have lately been made in its management which will, no doubt, tend to its greater prosperity and increased usefulness to the public. The library has been removed from its former cramped quarters in the upper floor of the old Intelligencer building to Stacey’s commodious new structure on Front Street, over S. Baxter’s wholesale liquor store, a central, pleasant location, altogether more convenient than the former. A room has been set off from the Young Men’s Christian Association hall for the reception of the books, and Mr. John Webster has been appointed librarian. Mr. Webster will be in attendance every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday evening for the exchange of books, and it is under consideration to establish a free reading room in connection, and have both open throughout the week, day and evening. This is an innovation that ought by all means to be carried out. The cost would be but slight, and the benefit to the city, including both its permanent and sojourning residents, would be disproportionately great. The saloons and other places of more questionable amusement are open night and day, and it is the least the city can do in the cause of public culture and intelligence to foster this institution.
“The saloons and other places of more questionable amusement are open night and day, and it is the least the city can do in the cause of public culture and intelligence to foster this institution.”
This 1877 plea for a free reading room highlights the perennial struggle to prioritize civic infrastructure in a frontier town dominated by commercial enterprise. Over 140 years later, Seattle continues to wrestle with the same tension: funding public spaces for education and culture in an environment where the 'saloons'—or their modern equivalent of luxury real estate—often occupy the most central, prime real estate.
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