The School Parade That Stopped Seattle
When the Territorial University students marched through downtown in 1889, it was a display of civic pride and collegiate spirit that briefly halted the city's bustling commerce.
The festivities of the Territorial University brought out a large crowd to the downtown streets today. The procession was the leading feature of the day, and especially that part of the students' program. The procession moved from the university grounds, where the students gathered, and headed toward the central business district. Two hundred students marched, and the young ladies and gentlemen were all dressed in holiday attire. They carried a large American flag. Before reaching the school, the parade will turn, with the band of the Columbia Amusement Hall in advance, and march over the business roads from Front to Second, and down to the water front to facilitate deliveries in the business quarter.
“The procession moved from the university grounds, where the students gathered, and headed toward the central business district.”
In 1889, the University of Washington was located in downtown Seattle (roughly the site of the current Fairmont Olympic Hotel). Today's massive growth of the University's footprint stands in stark contrast to this era, where the school was a small, singular presence that could literally march through the heart of the city's central business district to make its presence felt.
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