A Women-Only Hotel for the 1909 Seattle Fair
Clubwomen, churches and the Y.W.C.A. planned a 100-guest refuge for unescorted women visiting the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition.
Seattle to Have Refuge for Unescorted Visitors to Fair.
Seattle, June 8.—Seattle will have a hotel exclusively for women during the exposition. It will have accommodations for 100 guests and was established at a cost of $9,000. This was financed in large part by the various churches, women of the city, clubs, social and religious organizations. It will be conducted under the auspices of the Y.W.C.A., which will operate a women's hotel on First Hill.
“Seattle will have a hotel exclusively for women during the exposition. It will have accommodations for 100 guests.”
A century before “women's safety” became a mainstream travel concern, Seattle clubwomen built a lodging house on the premise that unescorted women deserved a safe, respectable place to stay. The episode is a reminder that housing shortages and who feels welcome in a city are civic choices, not just market outcomes.
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