The Day Seattle Voted on the Bottle
In a town-defining referendum in 1886, Seattle voters decisively rejected a prohibition measure, choosing the saloon over the temperance movement.
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 municipal election in Seattle, Washington, to determine whether the prohibitionists should carry the day, resulted in remarkable interest, as seen by the remarkably large vote polled. The saloon won. The advocates of prohibition and their employees kept to their posts at all the polling places, as did the day's prohibitionists, so that all who desired to do so rode to the polls and voted. The ladies of the Women's Christian Temperance Union were the most active spirits for the cause of prohibition and left no stone unturned, in an honorable way, to aid the cause which they so anxiously championed. Shortly after noon, it became evident to the advocates of prohibition that the day was lost, but they kept up good courage until near the close of the day. By 8 o’clock the polls closed, and the result was known. The total number of votes cast was 1,610; majority against prohibition, 1,008.
“The ladies of the Women's Christian Temperance Union were the most active spirits for the cause of prohibition and left no stone unturned.”
Long before Seattle became known for its craft breweries and coffee culture, it was a frontier town grappling with deep-seated conflicts over social regulation. The 1886 vote reflects the same tension between moral reform and individual liberty that continues to shape Seattle’s civic debates today, from modern land-use battles to debates over public safety and vice.
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