The University Would Pay Its Bills by Bonding Seattle Land
A bill to bond ten acres in Seattle and more than 1,000 acres in Western Washington advances, using the old land grant to pay for university improvements.
After the state university committee had reported favorably, as a result of a visit to the institution, the bill for bonding university lands was taken up and passed by the Senate. This is a valuable tract of ten acres in Seattle and over 1,000 acres in Western Washington remaining from the old grant. By this means it is proposed to raise funds which will pay back the appropriation of last year, the amount asked for this year's improvements, and provide for the next two years.
“This is a valuable tract of ten acres in Seattle and over 1,000 acres in Western Washington remaining from the old grant.”
The University of Washington's early finances were tangled up with real estate, and the legislature treated its land grant as a bank. Today's debates over public-university funding, campus expansion and land use still ask what public land is for. In 1895 the answer was to bond it.
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