A Miracle Survival at the Northern Hotel
A dishwasher fell four stories down an elevator shaft at the Northern Hotel and miraculously survived the plunge.
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.
Thomas Caldwell, a dishwasher at the Northern Hotel, fell down the freight elevator shaft last night around 8 o'clock from the fourth floor. In a turn of events described as miraculous, he escaped death. Caldwell was found on the elevator floor with a severe head wound, a mangled hand, and lacerations across his body. He reportedly attempted to pull the elevator up to his floor, lost his balance, and fell, managing to slow his descent by grabbing cables. Despite the hotel clerk’s initial attempt to keep the incident quiet to avoid bad publicity, Dr. I.W. Young was eventually called to treat the man, and he was later transported to the hospital for further care.
“Thomas Calduell, a young man employed in the Northern hotel, fell down the freight elevator well last night about 8 o'clock, from the fourth story, and, as if by a miracle, escaped death.”
This harrowing workplace accident at the Northern Hotel underscores the lack of safety infrastructure in early Seattle's rapidly built hotels. It serves as an early example of the tensions between worker safety and the protection of a business's public reputation, a recurring theme in urban civic life.
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