Council Kills Streetcar’s Yesler Avenue Extension

Both houses of the city council had another lively night over the Yesler Avenue franchise. The board of aldermen passed an ordinance granting the Seattle City Railway Company one year in which to double-track Yesler Avenue and Jackson Street, with the provision that if the work was not done within the stipulated time the company should lose all its rights under the city legislation. When the matter came before the house of delegates, that body killed the ordinance.

Corporation Counsel Scott had furnished an opinion on the old franchises. He said the Jackson Street franchise was granted in 1886 to the Lake Washington Cable Railroad Company, and the Yesler Avenue franchise in 1887 to the Seattle Construction Company, which had been succeeded by the Lake Washington Cable Railroad Company. The Seattle City Railway Company was the successor of the Lake Washington Cable Railroad Company. The question was whether the later company held rights under the ordinance in addition to those granted to the Seattle Construction Company. Scott held that the two ordinances did not necessarily conflict, and that the company's option to refuse to build a double track depended on whether the business and earnings would justify it. The delegates were in no mood to grant more time without a double track.