The Man Who Sold Olympia's Eastside Like Hot Cakes
W. E. Sebree platted a tract on the Eastside, cleared nearly $40,000, toured Alaska and Europe — and came home to a town he hardly recognized.
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.
W. E. Sebree, owner of the addition on the Eastside that bears his name, is in the city. His appearance on the street brings to the mind of many the good times which prevailed eighteen months ago. He landed in Olympia with little ceremony, put his money in a tract of land, platted it, and sold it like hot cakes. He cleaned up nearly $40,000 and has since visited Alaska, Europe and other places of interest. Now he is back and can hardly realize the improvements that have taken place.
“He landed in Olympia with little ceremony, put his money in a tract of land, platted it, and sold it like hot cakes.”
Sebree's Addition is still the name on Eastside plat maps, a reminder that Olympia's growth has long been someone's speculative venture. The $40,000 he cleared in the boom of 1889-90 would be a fortune today, and it came not from building anything but from buying ground and selling paper. Modern Olympia's land-flipping, lot-splitting and housing-cost fights are the same game with new paperwork.
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