Steilacoom Builds Before the Crowd Arrives
Warehouses on pilings, a new store and a brick jail: the town's 1853 building boom was a bet on growth.
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.
House builders have been kept busy in Steilacoom and vicinity of late, putting up new buildings and altering the old ones. Those improvements are not based on uncertain speculation respecting the future, but are called for to meet the demand of an increased and constantly increasing growth and trade.
Dr. Webber, of the firm of Balch & Webber, was foremost in making these improvements, in putting up a substantial warehouse in the rear of his store. This warehouse is built on piles over the water, for convenience in storing goods.
Next on the list is Philip Keach, Esq., who is in course of erecting a handsome dwelling, and in the meantime preparing to lay the foundation of a large store; his present store being entirely inadequate to his business.
Messrs. Vaill and Phillips, who received the contract for building the County Jail (of brick), are taking the initiatory steps for the performance of their contract; while Mr. Hardin Schmieg is clearing the ground on the creek for the erection of a brewery. In addition to the above, we learn that other structures, one or two of them brick, are in contemplation.
More than two livery stables are in course of erection, and a third in contemplation. In our advertising column, we have the jewelry and fancy store kept by Job M. Scales, Esq., which promises to rival in show the larger establishments of San Francisco when goods daily expected shall arrive.
“Those improvements are not based on uncertain speculation respecting the future, but are called for to meet the demand of an increased and constantly increasing growth and trade.”
Steilacoom's 1853 building spurt—warehouses on pilings, a new store, a brick jail—was an early Puget Sound bet that infrastructure would pull in trade. The same question faces small Washington towns today: build for the growth you expect, or wait until it arrives?
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