The Last Great Gush: West Seattle’s Promoters Promise Paradise on the Edge of the Sound
In February 1889, real estate agents and newspaper editors were busy selling a dream of West Seattle, touting its majestic views of Mount Rainier and promising that the new railroad would turn this rugged plateau into the next gold rush for land speculators.
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.
VISITORS TO SEATTLE ARE CORDIALLY INVITED TO CALL AT THE OFFICE OF ESHELMAN, LLEWELLYN & CO., POST BUILDING, FOR PICTURED MATTER OF THIS WONDERFUL COUNTRY TO MAIL TO THEIR EASTERN FRIENDS.
We have some of the Choicest Property in all parts of the City which we shall be pleased to show Intending Purchasers.
We quote the description of the scenery &c. from West Seattle from an article in the San Francisco Journal of Commerce:
"West Seattle, for a time, will pardon a stranger within their gates if we take an exceptional interest in the truly magnificent surroundings of this coming West End and don't run the risk of being considered 'gushing' in our praise by some, and cheeky in our advice to others. We must excuse ourselves by saying that we have inspected the coast from Alaska to the Mexican border. We have seen the sun rise the Alps, and have revelled in the beauties of Lucerne from the summit of Rigi; we have felt the soft influence of the Mediterranean and delighted in the castle-ring banks of the glorious Rhine. We have sought out and admired the flow scenery of the Old World and the New, but in no one spot have we ever been so impressed with the beauty of the landscape as that viewed from the table land of West Seattle. It is simply unique, the one site of all. The majestic Rainier points his hoary crest into the very heavens. Alone at his grandeur, like a very God, his massive front of 14,500 feet seems to dwarf into insignificance the surrounding mountains that would easily be grouped in front of you. Mount Baker, another white and glistening monster though some hundred miles or so away, thrusts himself upon your vision whilst right and left of you the Cascade and Olympic ranges form a background of the most exquisite mouldings that the mind of man can conceive—soft in their outline and ever changeful in their soft and glorious tints."
Through this property will pass the Seattle & Southern R.R., which will at once be rapidly pushed to completion with a depot close handy to the ferry ship. On either side will extend wharves and warehouses, factories and stores.
This 1889 promotional text captures the speculative fever that defined Seattle’s early growth, where land was sold not just for its utility but for its potential and scenic promise. Today, West Seattle remains a highly desirable residential area, but the 'table land' once touted as a pristine frontier is now a dense urban neighborhood grappling with the same housing affordability pressures and infrastructure challenges (like the bridge) that define modern Seattle real estate.
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