A Boomtown Year: Steilacoom Runs Out of Empty Houses
In its first-anniversary survey of Puget Sound, the Herald finds every vacant building in Steilacoom filled — and thirty new ones thrown up in eight months.
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.
The present number concludes the first volume of the Puget Sound Herald, and we may be permitted a brief retrospective glance at the progress of the country during the past year. The places vacated by those who came hither have been more than filled by others, drawn to the Pacific by the glowing accounts that drew the Californians here. As a natural consequence of this sudden influx of people, new towns have suddenly sprung into existence, and old ones have been enlarged to accommodate a largely augmented population. The number of mills has been increased, and the capacity of the old ones enlarged; new trades have been introduced, and every branch of business has received a stimulus that has imparted fresh life and vigor where before there was almost a total want of animation. Cheering reports come to us from all parts of the country. At Port Townsend, extensive improvements have been made within the past six months, the number of inhabitants and buildings being more than doubled in that short time. The great lumber establishments at Port Madison, Seattle and other points have undergone favorable changes; Seattle, too, not to be idle, nor yet Olympia, both of which towns exhibit considerable improvements. In no town or county, however, has the change been so wide as in Steilacoom and vicinity. Eight months ago, one-third of the fifty or seventy buildings in Steilacoom were empty; not only are all of them now occupied, but some thirty more have been erected and occupied. Notwithstanding this large addition to the demand for houses, no less than a dozen are wanted. Many new buildings are projected and under contract, to be completed during the ensuing summer. Two steamers (one of which has been for some weeks running in the Puget Sound trade) [are] on the [route], and the arrival of vessels from San Francisco [continues to bring] merchandise and passengers.
“Eight months ago, one-third of the fifty or seventy buildings in Steilacoom were empty; not only are all of them now occupied, but some thirty more have been erected and occupied.”
Steilacoom's 1858-59 spurt was built on lumber, the soldiers and payroll of Fort Steilacoom, and ships out of San Francisco — an early edition of the Puget Sound growth panic. The complaint that 'no less than a dozen' houses are wanted, even after thirty were thrown up in eight months, is the same squeeze between newcomers and buildable housing that South Sound towns argue about today.
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