A Sunday Earthquake Rattles Olympia, Stopping Clocks and Startling Diners
At 3:15 p.m. on Nov. 29, 1891, a sharp tremor shook the city, rattled windows, swayed chandeliers, and sent one hotel guest diving for the stairs.
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 about 15 minutes after 3 o'clock yesterday a severe earthquake shook the city and scared the people pretty well. Houses shook, windows rattled, chandeliers swayed, and there was a general shaking up. The clock on the tower of Odd Fellows' Temple stopped short, as did also the large regulator in the store of Rose Godard.
Several large buildings trembled perceptibly. Robert Graham, who was standing at the corner of Fourth and Main streets, said that the glass in the McKenny block swayed as though it would fall. At the Pacific drug store the bottles kept up a continual racket for several seconds.
A gentleman who was upstairs in the Olympia Hotel thought the boiler had exploded and, grabbing his hat, made a dive for the stairway. Houses in all parts of the city were shaken, but no damage was done. The shock was light as compared with that of 1872.
Robert Frost says he was lying down at his house and felt three distinct shocks. A. H. Chambers was engaged at dinner and didn't trouble himself about the quake, although he felt the house rattle perceptibly.
X. D. Rogers says he thought it was George Foster turning over in his sleep, while the latter thought Rogers had fallen down stairs.
There is a wide difference of opinion as to the direction of the oscillations, some saying that they were from south to north, while others are equally positive that they were from east to west, and others again from southeast to northwest.
At Tacoma, Seattle, Port Townsend and Portland the shock was equally distinct.
“A gentleman who was upstairs in the Olympia hotel thought the boiler had exploded and grabbing his hat made a dive for the stairway.”
Olympia sits in the Puget Sound seismic zone, and we now know the region is overdue for a major quake. In 1891, though, the city had no seismographs, no emergency plans, and no way to know that the shaking was a reminder of the deep tectonic forces beneath their feet. The story captures a moment of shared surprise—and the very human instinct to blame a neighbor or a boiler.
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