The Great 1885 Tax Liquidation
A sweeping list of unpaid property taxes in 1880s Seattle reveals the names of the city's early developers and the precarious reality of holding land in a young frontier town.
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.
Notice of Tax Sale: By virtue of an order issued by the Board of County Commissioners of the Territory of Washington, I will sell at public auction, at the City Hall in the city of Seattle, all delinquent road, city, fire, water and cemetery taxes for the year 1884. The sales will commence on the 21st day of April at 10 o'clock a.m., and continue from day to day, between the hours of 10 o'clock a.m. and 4 o'clock p.m., until all such real estate shall have been sold or the taxes paid.
“I will sell at public auction... until all such real estate shall have been sold or the taxes paid.”
This 1885 list of delinquent property owners, featuring names like Denny, Yesler, and Maynard, serves as a stark reminder that Seattle’s land-ownership class was often just as cash-strapped and reliant on property speculation as the city's modern real estate market. The 'tax sale' mechanism remains a fundamental, albeit harsh, tool of municipal finance that has persisted through Seattle's growth from a muddy mill town to a global metropolis.
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