The Hidden Killer in Seattle’s Business District
The tragic, preventable death of a young businessman in 1889 exposes the lethal lack of sewage infrastructure in the heart of downtown Seattle.
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.
In the untimely death of Mr. E. B. Randlett, a young gentleman who had but recently identified himself with Seattle and begun a career of promise and power, we have a stern lesson and a sad warning. Mr. Randlett was a victim to a condition which no community has the right to permit to exist. Our abominable sewerage system, or lack of system, was the direct cause of his death. He was stricken down by poisons which corrupt the atmosphere of our whole business quarter, and which menace the life of every man and woman in Seattle whose vocations bring them into the business part of town. To allow this condition to continue is more than foolish—it is positively criminal. No community has the moral right to impose dangers of this kind upon its members. Sickness of the disease under which he suffered last year has been traced directly to the lack of adequate sewerage facilities on the one hand and to the carelessness of citizens on the other. Both of these shameful facts are subject to reform at the hands of the city council. Sewers could be provided and individuals could be forced to keep their premises in wholesome condition. If the present state of affairs is allowed to continue, Seattle will be in danger of something like a pestilence. If typhoid fever in its most malignant and deadly form is upon us in April, what must we expect in the warm months of mid-summer? The situation is serious and alarming, and it calls for immediate action on the part of the council.
“To allow this condition to continue is more than foolish—it is positively criminal.”
A century and a half later, Seattle still debates the intersection of rapid growth, aging infrastructure, and public health. This 1889 editorial reminds us that 'booming' economies—then driven by timber and trade, now by tech—often outpace the basic civic systems needed to keep their citizens safe, proving that the 'growing pains' of a city are often a matter of life and death.
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