Tragedy at the Baxter Block
A 5-year-old boy falls to his death from the third-story porch of a residential block at Yesler and Fifth.
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.
Willard D. Williams, the 5-year-old son of A. J. Williams, janitor of the Seattle National Bank building, was killed yesterday afternoon by falling from the back porch of the Baxter block, at the corner of Yesler avenue and South Fifth street, to the ground, a distance of between thirty and forty feet. The little fellow struck upon his head, crushing his skull. The Williams family lived on the third floor of the Baxter block. The child opened the kitchen door leading to the porch and started for the stairs when he stumbled and fell headlong out into space. His mother, who was at the window, witnessed the fall. The child was rushed upstairs and physicians were summoned, but he died shortly after. Coroner Hotton investigated the case and will not hold an inquest.
“When the mother reached the railing and looked over for her child, she saw him stretched out upon the dirt-covered boards quivering in death struggles.”
The Baxter block, once a central fixture of Seattle, illustrates the precarious living conditions for families in the city's crowded early business district. It serves as a somber landmark story, linking a lost building to a specific, tragic human moment.
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