The Real Estate Auction That Built Seattle’s First Suburbs
In March 1889, just months after the Great Fire devastated downtown, executors of James Crawford’s estate sold off dozens of city lots in a public auction at Occidental Square. These parcels would become the foundation for neighborhoods like Judkins and Bellevue.
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.
Public Sale of Real Property.
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN THAT the undersigned executors of the last will of James Crawford, deceased, by authority of said will, will sell at public auction at Seattle, King county, Washington territory, in front of the Puget Sound National Bank, in Occidental square, on SATURDAY, THE 9TH DAY OF MARCH, A.D. 1889, beginning at the hour of 11 o'clock a.m. of said day, all the right, title and interest which the said James Crawford had at the time of his death, and which his estate has since acquired by operation of law or otherwise in and to the following described real property, viz:
CITY PROPERTY SEATTLE. 1. Lot 2, Block 10 in Judkins' addition. 2. Lots 8 and 9, block 6, in Northern addition. 3. Lots 11 and 12, block 16, in Hanford's addition. 4. Lot 10, McNaught's extension to Judkins' addition. 5. The north half of lot 4, in block 30, C.D. Boren's addition. 6. All of blocks 1 and 3 in Bellevue addition, except lot 11, block 20, 1. 7. Also a tract (commencing 4 chains, 70 links north of SW corner of NE of sec. 1, twp. 18 N., r. 4 E., thence east 5 chains, thence north 4 chains, 75 links, thence west 8 chains, thence south 4 chains, 75 links to place of beginning, being also known as the W½ of Wheefer's third addition.
LAND COUNTY. Lots 3, 4 and 5 in sec. 13, twp. 29 S., r. 2 E. Also, at the same time and place, the undersigned, as administrators of the copartnership estate of Crawford & Harrington, will sell all the right, title and interest which said firm had at the date of the death of said James Crawford, in and to the following described property, viz: 1. The SW¼ and the N½ of SE¼ of sec. 25 and lots 2, 3 and 6 and the E½ of the BE¼ of sec. 23, in twp. 23 S., r. 5 E., in King county. 2. The NW¼ of the NE¼ and lots 3 and 4 of sec. 28, twp. 20 S., r. 2 W and W½ of SW¼ of sec. 24, twp. 20 N., r. 2 W.
Terms of sale, 25 per cent cash at time of sale; balance upon delivery of deed within 15 days thereafter. For further particulars apply to the undersigned or to H.G. Ostrander, attorney for the estate.
A.A. DENNY, V.N. PRENTICE, Executors of said will and Administrators of said copartnership. Seattle, W.T., Feb. 14, 1889
This auction took place in the shadow of Seattle’s Great Fire of 1889, a disaster that destroyed the downtown core but accelerated the city's rebuilding and expansion into new neighborhoods. The lots listed here—specifically those in 'Judkins' addition' (now the Judkins Park neighborhood) and 'Bellevue' (which later became part of the broader Seattle/Bellevue corridor)—were being sold off by the estate of James Crawford, a prominent early settler. This event illustrates how private estate liquidations and developer additions shaped the physical layout of modern Seattle.
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