The Great Rebuilding: Seattle’s Post-Fire Lumber Rush
In the wake of the 1889 Great Seattle Fire, the local lumber trade faces an unprecedented surge in demand as thousands rush to rebuild, signaling a massive shift in the city’s economy and labor market.
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.
There is no shortage of lumber in Seattle. Out at the Mill Street Mill and Lumber Company yesterday morning, a score of teams were waiting to be loaded. Regarding the present condition of the lumber interest in Seattle, Mr. I. N. W. Smith, president of the company, said: 'The home demand for lumber has grown sluggish, and local prices had been reduced before the fire, but it has now struck. The fire has increased the demand, I should judge, from 20 to 30 per cent., and the increase will probably be more when we get ready to build more largely. There will be many more buildings put up than before, as nearly all intend to build where they were burnt.' When asked about the source of the lumber, Smith noted that the supply is coming from the company's own mill, the Peitz-McDonald mill, and the Johnson mill, supplemented by shipments from Port Gamble, Port Blakeley, and Port Madison. Regarding the local demand for labor, Smith added: 'There is not yet any demand for carpenters or skilled mechanics. Quite an overstock of them is here now. There is a kind of demand for laborers, and it is just the other way since the fire, when it was difficult to get a mechanic, and any number of laborers were idle.'
“There is a greater demand than ever, but none of it comes in bulk.”
This 1889 report captures the chaotic scramble to rebuild after the Great Seattle Fire, a moment of profound civic reinvention. Today, Seattle’s history of 'rebuilding' remains a constant theme, as the city faces modern crises of housing density and construction labor shortages that echo the same frantic energy found in the smoke of the 1889 recovery.
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