A Senator’s Lake Washington Commute
Senator Watson C. Squire returns to Seattle to mediate a messy standoff with the Belt Line railroad, which carved a deep, uncrossable ditch right through his prized farmstead.
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.
Senator Watson C. Squire is at the Rainier, having come over from Olympia on the evening train. After his arrival he was surrounded by friends. 'My visit is purely a business one,' said the senator. 'Tomorrow is the day set for the arbitration of a case between the Belt Line railroad and myself. The Belt Line, which is to skirt the eastern shore of Lake Washington, cuts through my farm southeast of the city. This farm is a pet of mine—where I have spent portions of my summers for at least ten years. I have worked upon it myself, having hewn out a pleasant home from a wilderness. When the Belt line was surveyed, the line was run right through the center of my place, cutting a swath 120 feet wide. I was informed that a trestle would be built, but instead, a great ditch is cut through the entire length of my farm with huge embankments thrown up that can neither be crossed over nor underneath. It shuts my stock from water, cuts my farm into two parts, and closes out my view. I decided to submit to personal sacrifices to have the matter settled by arbitration, as I realize that the building of the road means the enhancement of many farms along the lake.'
“Instead of a trestle a great ditch is cut through the entire length of my farm with huge embankments thrown up that can neither be crossed over nor underneath.”
Senator Squire’s struggle with the Belt Line railroad over his Lake Washington property highlights the recurring tension in Seattle history between regional transit development and private land utility. Today, this land is likely beneath the footprint of the neighborhood now known as Columbia City or the broader Rainier Valley, where the light rail line—a modern 'Belt Line'—still shapes the landscape.
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