The Dream of Homeownership in 1878 Seattle
A century and a half ago, the Intelligencer urged Seattle residents to anchor themselves through property ownership as a moral and familial duty.
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.
The heads of every family should cultivate an ambition to earn a home of their own, where they can plant their trees, train their vines, and rear their flowers and feel that these are growing for me and mine. How it inspires hope, nerves the weary hand and cheers each passing hour. It binds the family together. Each child has his or her tree, shrub or flower, something on which labor is bestowed, and to which they are attached. And as the years go by, and the family changes, sons and daughters go from home into the world, and parents are alone, how the evidence of the toil and the skill of the absent ones call up pleasant associations of the past; and to the children there are numerous attractions to draw them often back to the old home. It should become the aim of everyone in this country to become the owner of his home as early in life as possible, and parents will do their children a great service by instructing and assisting them to provide the nucleus of a home, even during their minority. It will give them an object for which to save their money, teach them frugality, and show them that success is within their power.
“It should become the aim of everyone in this country to become the owner of his home as early in life as possible.”
This editorial reflects an American mythos of property as the ultimate stabilizer of society. While 1878 Seattle was a frontier town defined by rapid expansion and speculative real estate, the same anxieties regarding homeownership—as a tool to build generational wealth and moral character—remain the bedrock of modern Pacific Northwest political discourse.
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