The Seattle Boom in Black and White: 1889
A look at the sheer volume of commerce flowing through Seattle's docks and rails just weeks after the Great Seattle Fire, showcasing a city obsessed with growth, brick, and iron.
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.
During the last 24 hours, the merchandise and produce receipts at this port were as follows: Puget Sound Shore Railroad, 279 tons; Columbia & Puget Sound Railroad, 28 tons; Seattle, Lake Shore & Eastern Railway, 10 tons. By water—steamer Vashon, 10 tons; W.K. Herwin, 4 tons; Skagit Chief, 15 tons; Fleetwood, 3 tons; Point Arena, 440 tons, plus live scows of brick and stone. Total receipts, 789 tons. During the same period, goods were shipped out from Seattle to the surrounding country: 19 tons by rail, and 104 tons by water, including flour, feed, soap, stationery, machinery, fruit, furniture, and 60 head of cattle. The Seattle Clearing-House reports record lumber carloads handled over the Seattle, Lake Shore & Eastern railway, signaling that despite the scars of the fire, the city’s industrial engine is running at a record pace.
“For the week the number of tons of merchandise received at the Puget Sound Shore depot has averaged over 200 tons daily.”
The raw data of 1889 captures a Seattle defining itself by logistics and transit—a theme that persists today. Just as the city then rushed to rebuild with brick and iron, modern Seattle continues to grapple with the tension between its rapid development and the capacity of its infrastructure.
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