The Forgotten Potential of Seattle's Poor Farm
A visit to the county-owned farm on the Duwamish reveals a rich historical site where city officials debated the ethics of poverty and public support in 1877.
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.
County Commissioners finished their business with the liquor licenses on Monday and took a trip up to the County Farm yesterday. Mr. Maddocks informs us that the farm contains over one hundred and sixty acres of black alluvial soil, twenty acres of which are in a fine state of cultivation. For the past four years, the farm has been leased to some Chinamen for $500 a year, and our informants say they have profited largely by it, as the land is admirably suited to the cultivation of vegetables for which they find an excellent market in this city. The portion under cultivation was formerly the site of an extensive old Indian lodge, and the soil is covered with decomposed clam and oyster shells, which were deposited there in great amounts years ago by the Indians, and which now render the land exceedingly fertile. Mr. Maddocks informs us that he considers the farm today worth at least $15,000 to the county. The county needs a poor-farm, and this should be converted into one. There are indigent persons dependent upon the county for support who, if put on a farm under proper management, could earn their own living; we may venture to assert that if the matter is managed properly the poor of King County will become wholly self-supporting.
“The county needs a poor-farm, and this should be converted into one. There are indigent persons dependent upon the county for support who, if put on a farm under proper management, could earn their own living.”
The debate over whether public land should support the indigent or generate profit for private leaseholders echoes modern Seattle's intense conflicts over the use of public space and the city's approach to the homelessness crisis. While the 1877 vision of a self-supporting poor farm feels archaic, the impulse to find a 'fix' for poverty through land management remains a recurring theme in local governance.
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