Two Railroads Cut a Deal Through Ballard
The Ballard council ratified a track-swap agreement between the Seattle & Montana and the Lake Shore & Eastern, settling access to Shilshole Avenue and the mills.
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.
At a special session of the city council of Ballard last night the agreement between the Seattle & Montana Railway and the Seattle, Lake Shore & Eastern Railway was read. Representatives of both roads were present and explained the agreement and alterations they wished made in the franchises.
The Lake Shore is to vacate the northerly sixty feet of Shilshole Avenue at present occupied by its main track, house tracks and depot, and allow the Seattle & Montana to occupy the same sixty-foot strip, for which it holds a franchise, with its four main tracks. In return, the Seattle & Montana will assign its interest in its franchise of a thirty-foot strip on the south and westerly side of Shilshole Avenue next to the mills. Both companies agree to bear a pro rata share of the expense of grading and planking Shilshole Avenue, and the Seattle & Montana will remove the depot of the Lake Shore to a convenient place on the thirty-foot strip.
The Seattle & Montana Railway requested that section 4 of the thirty-foot franchise be eliminated, as the condition that fifty miles of road be built within a year had been complied with. This was agreed to.
The Lake Shore wanted section 8 of the franchise modified so as to give it the exclusive use of the thirty-foot strip. In the franchise granted to the Seattle & Montana, section 8 provides for the common use of the track by other roads that may enter the city by paying a just proportion of the expense of constructing and maintaining the tracks. The council refused to do this.
Each road has the right to cross the tracks of the other, so that lateral connections with the mills from the tracks on the north and easterly side of Shilshole Avenue can be made at any time. The track next the mills is to be a joint track between the two roads, and is provided for in the agreement.
A resolution authorizing and empowering the Seattle & Montana Railway to assign its thirty-foot franchise, with section 4 omitted, to the Lake Shore was passed and the city attorney was instructed to prepare an ordinance ratifying it.
A resolution requesting the city tax collector, city treasurer and city attorney to deposit the funds of the city of Ballard in the Marine Savings Bank instead of in the Bank of Seattle was passed. The petition of the Seattle Timber Preserving Company for reduction of taxes was granted. An ordinance for the improvement of Crawford Street, from the west line of First Avenue West to the east line of Second Avenue West, was passed and adopted.
“The track next the mills is to be a joint track between the two roads.”
Ballard was a separate city in 1893, and its council was bargaining over the rail corridors that connected Puget Sound mills to national markets. The agreement shows how thoroughly private franchises and public streets were entangled in the boom-era city—a precursor to today's fights over rail, freight and waterfront access.
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