The Siege of Third Street
When tenants refused to vacate their boarding house, a Seattle landlord responded by nailing the gates shut and mounting a guard.
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.
John Webster owns the home at 613 Third Street, corner of Madison. Until recently, it was occupied by John Cort. Cort moved a month ago, subleasing the house to other tenants who also removed, when Cort leased the premises to Mrs. F. and Mrs. Alma Swartwell and Dr. W. Norton Davis. The ladies occupied the lower floor as a hair-dressing emporium. Mr. Cort's lease expired August 1, and Mr. Webster had previously rented the house to Thomas Drew, a hardware merchant. The owner demanded possession, and the tenants refused to move, so early yesterday Mr. Webster nailed up the gate and stood guard, forbidding exit or entrance. The women came out and made feeble efforts to knock the boards off the gate, but Mr. Webster stood them off. Then Chief of Police Mitchell was sent for, and none too soon, for young Dr. W. Norton Davis had appeared on the scene with an ax, threatening his landlord, who is an aged man. The chief prevented bloodshed, and after a time quiet was restored. Mr. Webster departed, and the tenants cut a door and built steps in the rear of the house, which answers the purposes of an ingress and egress.
“The women came out and made feeble efforts to knock the boards off the gate, but Mr. Webster stood them off.”
Eviction disputes are a permanent fixture of Seattle civic life, though landlords today generally rely on courts rather than picketing their own properties with hammers and nails. The 1889 fire wiped out the original buildings on Third and Madison, but the site remains a dense urban corridor.
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