The Rapid Rise of Palatine
A new industrial settlement along the canal route emerges as a hub of quick development.
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.
The growth of Seattle’s manufacturing interests is a matter of no little interest to the city, and an inspection of Salmon Bay, the ship canal, and the busy center connecting thereto will well repay a visit. Some new enterprise or other is constantly developing in that section, and indeed there are at present hundreds of hands employed in the factories and works surrounding Salmon Bay and the canal section. A community is under way, while that district at Palatine is already provided with a good boarding-house, post office, and other accompaniments of a thriving community. Some twenty-five lots in the Palatine Hill addition have been sold during the past week or ten days, for the erection, at once, of as many houses. These facts speak for themselves. The electric line and the cable line both contemplate an extension to this lively center.
“Some twenty-five lots in the Palatine Hill addition have been sold during the past week or ten days, for the erection, at once, of as many houses. These facts speak for themselves.”
This 1889 report chronicles the 'boom town' era of Palatine, an early neighborhood that existed before the massive ship canal project physically transformed the Salmon Bay area. It mirrors contemporary Seattle's cycle of rapid transit-oriented development, where infrastructure promises—in this case, electric lines—fuel speculative land sales and housing starts long before the services actually arrive.
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