The City Stops the Build: Seattle's 1889 Fight Over 'Fireproof' Tent-Frames
When D.K. Baxter tried to erect three structures made of pipe frames and canvas on Yesler Avenue, the city inspector shut him down, triggering a tense legal stand-off over what constitutes a safe building.
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.
Inspector Albertson yesterday morning ordered Mr. D.K. Baxter to cease the work of three connected buildings with pipe frames and canvas walls on Yesler Avenue, near Fourth street. Mr. Baxter contends that the frames are non-combustible and thus not in violation of the building ordinance. The city attorney is undecided, but the building inspector says that all buildings of such construction are prohibited by the ordinance. The objection to their construction is that they are not durable and that wood will have to be used to shelter them. The building inspector, as he is in such matters, declared the building unsafe. Until the issue is settled, work on the building is stopped. While awaiting action of the city attorney, the building inspector hinted that if the work is not stopped, he will challenge the validity of the ordinance in the courts. The question is an interesting one; many others are only too cheap in nature in the heart of the city, and once built they will probably not be removed by fire or they will be torn down.
“The question is an interesting one; many others are only too cheap in nature in the heart of the city.”
This 1889 clash over 'cheap' temporary structures in the heart of the city echoes today's debates about fire safety, emergency shelter, and the tension between rapid urban growth and strict, often exclusionary, building codes.
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