Garbage, Disease, and Dead Animals: Seattle's 1889 Growing Pains
Newly inaugurated Mayor Wheelwright lays out an ambitious and desperate sanitation plan as city council grapples with the fallout of the Great Seattle Fire and the perils of rapid, unregulated urban expansion.
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.
At a meeting of the city council this afternoon, Mayor Wheelwright read his inaugural address, in which he advised an increase in the police force, providing funding for a private detective agency, and making proper provision for the disposal of garbage of all descriptions, as well as the carcasses of dead animals, all of which now threaten the health of our city. He advised an increase in the number of hose carts and engine houses to be placed on the hills. Referring to the recent disaster caused by the fall of the Bates building, he thought that a building inspector should be appointed without delay. Mr. P. A. Paulston, of the Fourth ward, made several complaints relative to the condition of the gulch at the foot of Puyallup avenue. At present, a number of cases of scarlet fever are raging in that vicinity, and last fall 165 cases of scarlet fever were reported, resulting in three deaths.
“The garbage of all descriptions, as well as the carcasses of dead animals, all of which now threaten the health of our city.”
In 1889, Seattle was literally fighting for its life against disease and building collapses following its devastating fire. Today’s debates over public health, building safety, and the necessity of basic municipal infrastructure echo the same struggle for professional standards in a rapidly growing, often chaotic urban environment.
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