The Fairview Addition: A 19th-Century Real Estate Pitch
An 1878 advertisement for a 'rich, level' tract of land reveals how early Seattle developers used the installment plan to sell the dream of homeownership.
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.
These lots are situated in a rich, level tract of land, just one mile from White's corner, on Front Street, in what is known as the Fairview Addition to Seattle. They are mostly cleared and ready for building purposes. There are a number of springs on the property, besides a running brook, which never dries up. Parties of limited means will be able to make themselves good, comfortable homes as these lots will be sold on the installment plan to those desiring to purchase in that manner. Any information in regard to the above lots can be obtained on the premises, or of Frank A. Pontius, Seattle, W. T.
“Parties of limited means will be able to make themselves good, comfortable homes as these lots will be sold on the installment plan.”
Today, the Fairview area has long since been swallowed by the dense urban fabric of the Capitol Hill and Eastlake neighborhoods. While the 'installment plan' was a 19th-century innovation for middle-class property access, it underscores a permanent Seattle tension: the persistent, competitive, and often aggressive marketing of land in a city defined by its rapid expansion.
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