The Squatters of Front Street
When a building’s rent price surged following the Great Seattle Fire of 1889, the owner tried to renege on an existing lease—leading to a tense standoff and a vigilante guard force.
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 a controversy between John F. Jones, owner of the large new building on the southwest corner of Front and Stewart streets, and Evans & Fletcher, who claim to be lessees, as to the right of the latter to occupy the building. Before the foundation of the building had been laid, Mr. Jones agreed with Evans & Fletcher, who were liquor dealers at Renton, to let the place to them at a monthly rental of $75. On that date he accepted one month’s rent, stipulating in the receipt that the building was to be ready for occupancy about August 1st. When the big fire came and the business center moved northward, the lot at Front and Stewart streets became vastly more valuable. Mr. Jones, through his agent, Mr. A. Maitland, set up a claim that the fire, by increasing the cost of building material and thereby making the lot more valuable for business purposes, abrogated the lease. He demanded that the firm sign a new agreement to pay $200 per month rental and to allow the owner to exclude tenants distasteful to him. This proposition was rejected, and on Thursday Evans & Fletcher moved their trunks into the unfinished stores and took up their residence, refusing to leave. Friday night and last night, four men in the employ of the Joneses guarded the building from a possible evicting party. On Monday morning Evans & Fletcher will move in furniture and take complete possession.
“When the big fire came and the business center moved northward, the lot at Front and Stewart streets became vastly more valuable.”
Post-fire 1889 Seattle saw property values skyrocket, leading to predatory rent hikes that mirror today's displacement struggles. The standoff at Front and Stewart—near today’s Post Alley and Stewart Street—reminds us that Seattle’s fight for affordable space is as old as the city itself.
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