The Great Tacoma Housing Panic: Hotels Full, Strangers Sleeping on Floors
As the Puget Sound region braces for statehood and a railroad boom, Tacoma is facing a severe shortage of lodging. With every hotel in town crowded and strangers arriving daily, new arrivals are forced to seek shelter in private homes.
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.
TACOMA, March 12.—Several real estate sales have been effected within the past few days. One of the most important is one by Stewart, Judd & Co., who sold five acres within the city limits to the Puyallup Manufacturing & Lumber Company, which are to be used for a large shop and desirable factory site. The firm has bought the whole proposition for Mr. Paul S. Newell.
Mr. Newell has moved his late residence to Park Avenue and added a new one on Main Street. J. V. Meeker has sold plans for a new residence prepared by S. A. Cook of Tacoma, and will build on Lowman Avenue.
The five acres known as the Factory tract have now been platted in conformity with the existing streets.
All the hotels in town are crowded, and strangers are arriving daily. Great difficulty is felt in finding accommodations at the new corners, having to be content with rather motley dwellings.
This brief report from 1893 captures a moment of acute housing scarcity in Tacoma, driven by industrial expansion and railroad growth. It mirrors modern Seattle’s ongoing struggle where rapid economic booms outpace housing supply, forcing newcomers into precarious or substandard living situations—a dynamic that continues to define the region's real estate market today.
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