Seattle’s Endless War Against the Hillside
In 1878, city officials scrambled to grade Mill Street to fix dangerous mudslides—a challenge that continues to plague Seattle’s topography today.
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.
As a precautionary measure to obviate the slides which have frequently occurred on the hillside, to the endangering of costly improvements that have been made there, it has been ordered to partially grade Mill Street, between Fifth and Eighth. A fill is to be made between Fifth and Sixth, and a cut ten feet in width, above Sixth. This it is thought will have the effect to afford a drainage sufficient to ensure the stability of the clay side-hill, and at the same time, to give a grade of the street practicable for travel, and save a long detour. The street committee have called for proposals for the work to be submitted prior to 8 o'clock this evening.
“To obviate the slides which have frequently occurred on the hillside, to the endangering of costly improvements that have been made there.”
Seattle’s geography has always been a struggle; the 'clay side-hill' mentioned in 1878 is the same geological headache that leads to modern-day landslides across neighborhoods like Magnolia and West Seattle. While the scale of engineering has changed, the city's perpetual battle against its own steep terrain remains a fundamental part of the local experience.
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