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Seattle's Unified Defense Against the Panic

While other cities suffer the economic crash, Seattle bankers and merchants unite to protect their depositors and maintain stability.

One exception to the cities along the coast seems to be Seattle, Wash. When the Seattle people saw the panic coming, they had a town meeting, and all the solvent banks, prominent merchants and big real estate owners of the city entered into a combination to protect depositors in all banks that came into their circle. The result has been that they have had little or no trouble in Seattle and that buildings and improvements are going on there faster than ever.

“When the Seattle people saw the panic coming, they had a town meeting, and all the solvent banks, prominent merchants and big real estate owners of the city entered into a combination to protect depositors.”

— Printed in The Seattle Post-Intelligencer (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1893
Then · 1893133 years apartNow · 2026

Seattle’s tendency toward aggressive 'boosterism' in the face of economic hardship has deep roots. This narrative of civic unity during the 1893 panic is a classic example of the city selling itself as a resilient, exceptional hub, a precursor to modern economic development marketing.

The original page

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1893-10-10. Library of Congress, Chronicling America.

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About this story

From
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, OCT 10, 1893, Page 2
Text
Cleaned up from the page — spelling and layout repaired — not a word-for-word transcription. The page itself is above, for exact wording.
Rights
Public domain
Place
47.60323, -122.33028 · placed automatically
The paper in the Library of Congress catalog ↗