Workman Falls Twelve Feet in New Brick Building
Henry Lohse survives a dangerous plunge through an elevator hole at O.R. Stone's construction site.
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.
Henry Lohse, of the contracting firm of Ranke & Lohse, met with a painful accident yesterday while assisting with the plastering in O. R. Stone's new brick building. Just back of the place where Mr. Lohse stood was a hole in the floor, left for the elevator which is to be placed in the building. On quitting work, Mr. Lohse unthinkingly stepped back and fell through this opening to the floor joists of the basement, a distance of twelve feet, striking on his side. At first it was thought he was fatally injured, but he soon recovered consciousness and was taken to his home.
“At first it was thought he was fatally injured, but he soon recovered consciousness.”
Construction site accidents are timeless, but the 1883 setting highlights the lack of modern safety regulations for building elevator shafts, then a new architectural feature in Seattle.
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