The Struggle of the Sailors' Home
While Seattle’s churches held regular Sunday services, a pressing plea for a new facility on the wharves highlighted the neglect faced by the city's waterfront laborers.
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.
At the Battery street M.E. Church, the Rev. I. W. Joyner delivered a sermon from Numbers 13:30: 'And the people before Moses and said, Let us go up at once and possess it, for we are well able to overcome it.' After the service, the Rev. George A. Tewksbury, filling in for the regular pastor, presented the subject of the sailor's needs. He called attention to the homeless condition of the sailors and their manifold temptations, showing how little is actually being done for them by Christian churches. He presented the urgent need of a suitable building down on the wharves where good reading and a pleasant place to spend an evening might be had for their use. He also called attention to the fact that the saloon, and all its adjuncts, stand between the sailor as he lands and the up-town churches.
“The saloon, and all its adjuncts, stand between the sailor as he lands and the up-town churches.”
In 1889, Seattle's religious community debated how to support an transient, marginalized labor force on the waterfront. Today, the city continues to struggle with balancing the needs of its most vulnerable populations against the pressure of rapid development and a shifting urban landscape.
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