Private Money Wanted to Fill Smith's Cove—and Asked the City to Say Yes
A San Francisco syndicate lined up a state tide-land contract for May 7, with an injunction the only obvious obstacle.
Judge Frank Shay and W. P. Humphreys of San Francisco, who are endeavoring with W. F. Hays of this city to secure the contract for filling in the tide lands at Smith's Cove, left yesterday on the 12:10 train for California. Judge Shay will return on May 3 to take the matter up again. On May 7 the state will indicate its intention as to letting the contract, and if everything is agreeable the contract for this work will be signed on that day.
W. F. Hays, speaking of the matter yesterday, said: 'We believe the improvement is a needed one, and it will certainly be made if the people desire it. I have no doubt but that the contract with the state will be duly entered into on May 7, or about that date. It then rests with the people whether the flats are filled immediately or not. Of course, if injunction proceedings are begun it will delay the final result, but I think the deal will go through. We are not asking any one to put up a dollar; we don't ask anything from the people. We simply say to the people: "Do you want these flats filled?" If they do we will fill them. We have the money to do it with, and that is all there is to the proposition.'
“We are not asking any one to put up a dollar; we don't ask anything from the people. We simply say to the people: 'Do you want these flats filled?' If they do we will fill them.”
Smith Cove became a major industrial waterfront and later the site of Seattle's cruise terminal. The 1895 deal captures a familiar Seattle story: public tide lands, private capital, and the promise that filling a bay will be good for the city.
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