The Great King County Land Scandal
An anonymous critique exposes rampant corruption and reckless assessment in the early days of King County’s real estate boom.
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.
In a pointed assessment of current affairs, an observer notes a deep discrepancy in the way land is being valued in King County. The complainant argues that tax commissioners are assigning valuations that bear no relation to the actual market price of the land. 'I think, of any method, that the one used is the most absurd,' the observer states. 'Some of the land which they have for sale at from $5 to $10 an acre is being assessed at a value of from $15 to $40 an acre, despite the fact that no trace of value has ever been there.' The critic asserts that this inflation is a deliberate, yet misguided, effort to generate revenue, but that it creates a false sense of prosperity while placing an undue burden on landowners who are struggling to maintain their holdings. The letter concludes with a hope that the upcoming board of commissioners might rectify these inequities and push for a new state system to replace the current, flawed one.
“I think, of any method, that the one used is the most absurd.”
This critique from 1889 captures a foundational moment in the Seattle real estate market, where speculative fever and aggressive tax assessments created artificial boom-bust cycles. Much like today's concerns over property tax hikes and housing affordability, residents of the 1880s were wrestling with how to fairly value land as the city transformed from a frontier outpost into an urban powerhouse.
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