The Rotting Schoolhouse
A local mechanic alerts the city to a school building construction so shoddy it was doomed to collapse.
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.
Passing the new school building in the northern part of town on Sunday last, my attention was attracted to the settlement of timbers and to fissures in the walls. I proceeded to the basement and observed brick piers from two to five feet high, with a post on top one-third the size of the pier, giving way in all directions. Several of the brick piers were telescoping down into the stone foundation. The specifications call for cement in the mortar, but I find no trace of it. The public is curious to know who the real contractor is, as the stone came consigned to a member of the school board. Judge Burke, one of the School Board, had already taken the matter in hand. It was found that the stone and brick piers were as stated, and that their rebuilding will be necessary. In fact, the construction was faulty throughout, and in plain violation of contract. It is providential that the discovery was made at so early a day, for had the house gone on to completion, there is no telling how many innocent young lives would have been sacrificed.
“Several of the brick piers were telescoping down into the stone foundation, the stone seeming to rise up to look at it.”
This incident of corrupt school construction reveals the dark side of Seattle's 1880s building boom. When 'getting it done' for the lowest cost overrides safety, local citizens acting as watchdogs become the only line of defense for public infrastructure.
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