A Railroad, a Tide-Land Tract, and an Elevator Go on the Auction Block
A bond debt forced the sheriff to sell the Terminal Railway Elevator Company's tracks, tide land, West Seattle elevator and warehouse, and franchise at the courthouse steps.
Sheriff Van de Vanter will today sell at auction from the steps of the courthouse the property of the Terminal Railway Elevator Company, to satisfy a judgment given March 11 in favor of the People's Savings Bank as trustee of the bondholders. The debt was evidenced by 250 bonds of $1,000 each, secured by a trust deed made by the company to the trustee. The order of sale allows the plaintiff and any of the bondholders to become bidders.
The property to be sold consists of the tracks of the terminal railway, tide land on this side of the harbor, the elevator and warehouse at West Seattle, and the plant and equipment of the railway, including the right-of-way and franchise, buildings, etc.
“The property to be sold consists of the tracks of the terminal railway, tide land on this side of the harbor, as well as the elevator and warehouse at West Seattle.”
The foreclosure sale captures Seattle's early growth machine: railway franchises, tide-land claims and West Seattle speculation all leveraged on bonded debt. When the boom wobbled, the sheriff's auction steps became the city's clearinghouse for failed dreams.
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