The Future of East Seattle: A New Coney Island for the Northwest
As cable cars crowd toward Lake Washington on Sundays, developers Stern & Miller promise a pleasure resort of hotels and dancing pavilions that will eclipse all others.
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.
WHY, IT'S THE TALK OF THE TOWN! WHAT IS? Why, the future of East Seattle. They say it is going to be the Coney Island of Washington Territory.
Everybody and his best girl were out sailing and on the Island Sunday. The cable cars were crowded; the lake was alive with steam craft and pleasure boats of all descriptions.
They say Stern, Miller & Co. propose to make it the pleasure spot of the Northwest. It will be the home of the elite and the day pleasure resort of the entire Sound.
Hotels, boat-house, dancing pavilion, carryalls, and all varieties of pleasure facilities will be erected for man, woman and child.
FOR INFORMATION CALL AND SEE PUGET SOUND LAND BUREAU, STERN, MILLER & CO., James and Second Streets, SEATTLE, W. T.
This 1889 advertisement captures the speculative fever that defined Seattle’s early growth, where land developers marketed leisure destinations as essential infrastructure for a booming city. The vision of East Seattle as a 'Coney Island' mirrors modern debates over waterfront development and public access to recreational spaces in a rapidly gentrifying urban core.
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