The Tragedy at the Gold Bar Hotel
A young worker’s lonely death in a Seattle hotel room reveals the harsh, often isolated reality of life for laborers in the 1880s.
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.
Before the Fourth of July a young fellow named Christian Peterson, aged about 20, came to Seattle from one of the logging camps on the Sound, having in his possession a considerable sum of money. His object in coming here was to celebrate the fourth and to paint the town red. He was offered ample opportunity to accomplish his mission. He got drunk and remained in that condition until about the 23rd instant, when his money was nearly exhausted and he concluded to 'sober up.' He took a room at the Gold Bar Hotel, where he remained almost constantly. He had several bottles of drink taken there. Tuesday afternoon he came down to the bar-room and got a pitcher of ice water. Yesterday, several times during the day, the young man who attends to the rooms in that establishment tried the door of the room occupied by Peterson, but finding them locked, assumed he was asleep and made no effort to arouse him. In the evening he notified Mr. Parker, the proprietor, of the fact, and that gentleman felt it his duty to force open the door. There lay Peterson, with his head shattered, and two holes of blood on the shoulder of his coat. A 38-caliber revolver was found by his side, with one shell discharged. It is supposed the act was committed late Tuesday afternoon, although no one has been found who heard the report of the shot. The pitcher of water was consumed. The medical examiner found that the ball entered the brain. Peterson had on his person $1.75 and a silver watch. No inquest will be held, as it is a clear case of suicide. Nothing is known of the deceased other than that he had been employed at logging camps on the Sound.
“His object in coming here was to celebrate the fourth and to paint the town red. He was offered ample opportunity to accomplish his mission.”
This 1885 report captures the precarious nature of life for transient loggers in early Seattle, a city built on the backs of men who lived in boarding houses like the Gold Bar. Today, while the logging camps are gone, Seattle still struggles with the high cost of housing and the isolating, often tragic reality for those living on the margins of the city's rapid expansion.
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