The Perils of Early Seattle Construction
A carpenter is struck unconscious by a falling board at a building site, highlighting the chaotic and unregulated nature of the city's 1889 post-fire construction 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.
James McGinnis, a carpenter, was struck on the head by a board and seriously injured yesterday forenoon. He was working at the new double house being built on Seventh Street, between University and Union, for Charles McIntyre. The board was carelessly thrown from the top of the building by a tinner’s apprentice named Olof. The end struck McGinnis on the back and right side of the head, inflicting a wound about two and a half inches long and rendering the man unconscious for two hours. McGinnis was removed to his residence at Navy Terrace, and Dr. Hall attended him. The skull was not fractured, but the shock was so severe that there are fears for the man’s recovery.
“The end struck McGinnis on the back and right side of the head, inflicting a wound about two and a half inches long and rendering the man unconscious for two hours.”
This 1889 incident captures the raw, dangerous energy of a city rebuilding itself from the ashes of the Great Seattle Fire. It rhymes with the modern-day risks facing construction workers in a city that is once again in a constant, breathless state of vertical expansion.
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