Seattle Orders Streets Cleared Following Great Fire
City officials demand the immediate removal of impromptu sidewalk stalls that sprouted after the destruction of the downtown business district.
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.
Mr. G. C. McGilvray, deputy sanitary officer, acting under the instructions of the street committee, yesterday afternoon notified all street traders to remove their stands from the streets and sidewalks in the business portion of the city. If the stands are not removed by this morning, a force of men will be sent out to tear them down. The city ordinances prohibit stands being placed outside the property line, but merchants are allowed twenty inches of the sidewalk to display their goods. The operation of this ordinance has been suspended since the fire, but now that everything has settled down, it will be rigidly enforced.
“If the stands are not removed by this morning, a force of men will be sent out to tear them down.”
This 1889 report captures the tension between rapid entrepreneurial adaptation in the wake of disaster and the rigid enforcement of public space ordinances. Today's Seattle continues this struggle, as the city navigates the balance between supporting informal commerce and maintaining municipal control over public rights-of-way.
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