Rising from the Embers: Ellensburg's Rapid Rebirth
After a devastating fire consumed the heart of the city in July 1889, the community transformed from a charred wasteland into a brick-fronted city in just two months.
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.
Among all the evidences of the rapid and substantial growth of Washington, and of the irrepressible pluck and energy of her people, none is more striking than the rehabilitation of Ellensburg. In April last, on a brief visit to that town, I was somewhat surprised at the improvement which had been made since my previous visit a year before; but on another visit which I made last week, I was astonished beyond expression. The fire of July 4 wasted the town. Nearly every business house was swept away. The heart of the city was left a bed of embers. That was a little over two months ago, but in these two months a city has been built. Large brick buildings, constructed in the most substantial manner, now stand on much of the ground burnt over, and others are rapidly nearing completion. Today in the burnt district of Ellensburg there is 4,500 feet of brick front completed or far on toward completion. Forty-five hundred feet means almost a mile. Of all these buildings, I was reliably informed there will not be 300 feet of one-story work—the whole extent being two and some of it three stories high. Some of these buildings are faced with a good quality of pressed brick made at Ellensburg, and all are being constructed in a manner to be ornamental as well as substantial. Wooden trimmings are banished, as they ought to be from all brick buildings, and iron cornices take their place.
“The fire of July 4 wasted the town. Nearly every business house was swept away. The heart of the city was left a bed of embers... but in these two months a city has been built.”
Ellensburg's post-fire reconstruction reflects the 'irrepressible' civic pace still seen in modern Seattle’s rapid densification. Like 1889, today’s Seattle often balances the necessity of rapid growth with the struggle to define its urban character amidst ongoing change.
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