The Free Real Estate Gamble of 1876
Facing a housing crunch, a prominent developer offers free land to anyone willing to build—a desperate move to spur growth in North Seattle.
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.
We have heard a great deal of complaint from time to time of the exorbitant rates at which real estate in Seattle was held and the difficulty that poor men experienced in getting a foothold here. This has been held up as a great obstacle in the way of the growth of the town. But this argument can no longer be used with reason, as will be apparent by a reference to the advertisement of Mr. D. T. Denny, which appears in another column. Mr. Denny proposes to donate a town lot in North Seattle to every person who will buy one lot at $50 and build a dwelling house. Thus an exceptional opportunity is offered to house cheap. We doubt whether such chances will remain open in our city very long.
“We have heard a great deal of complaint from time to time of the exorbitant rates at which real estate in Seattle was held.”
In 1876, Seattle’s early growth was throttled by the high cost of land, leading developer D.T. Denny to offer 'buy one, get one' deals to incentivize settlement. Today, Seattle’s housing crisis remains rooted in the same fundamental struggle: the friction between land speculation and the urgent need for affordable worker housing.
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