The Miracle of the 'Traction Luck'
After the Great Seattle Fire, one man’s singular misfortune becomes a bizarre local legend of resilience.
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.
Woodruff, the only man who has suffered total destruction of all property by the recent fire, is the luckiest man of the century. He has made a window or more of clear glass and has suffered from all the others in all that catastrophe; in his business, he has apparently not sustained a loss. The only art of his feat is in his luck. When he gathers the heat, it naturally makes amends for the loss by centering him in his new building. Woodruff’s many and varied real estate holdings have complicated the situation. Even in his luck, it is a mystery that he escaped the power of disaster as he has and to keep the site clear, yet he has been able to fill the real estate. They say he is a lucky man, but whether he has been saved by a design is to be verified. The only mystery is that he has not yet been asked to return the fire's toll.
“Woodruff, the only man who has suffered total destruction of all property by the recent fire, is the luckiest man of the century.”
Post-fire recovery often creates rapid, uneven wealth in cities. Just as the 1889 Great Seattle Fire reshaped the real estate landscape to benefit lucky, well-positioned property owners, today's rapid urban redevelopment often leaves the average renter behind while others 'luck into' massive gains.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.