Mother Damnable
6 OK Hotel
7 Star Bar
15 Frye’s Hotel
20 Megan Mary Olander Florists
21 The Central
22 J & M Café
24 Dutch Ned
26 88 Keys
GREAT SEATTLE FIRE
On June 6, 1889, John E. Back, a worker in Victor Clairmont’s cabinetmaking shop near the old Front Street and Madison Avenue, was making glue in a hot glue pot. The glue boiled over starting a fire on the shop’s wooden floor. The fire soon spread to the wood chips and turpentine covering the floor. But, the small shop fire combined with many other elements to create the tragedy of the Great Seattle Fire.
The tragedy of the great fire might not have happened if…
If the neighboring building wasn’t a supply shop storing ammo, gun powder, and dynamite.
If the fire hadn’t spread to a warehouse that had received fifty barrels of whiskey just an hour earlier.
If the fire chief had not been out of town at a firefighters’ convention in San Francisco.
If the fire trucks had not gotten stuck in the mud flats.
If a poor water-pump system hadn’t failed to maintain water pressure for the firefighters’ hoses.
If (unbelievably true) the city officials hadn’t asked young men to use dynamite to blow up the buildings surrounding the fire. Granted, they hoped to contain the fire by removing some of these structures, but these young men were blowing up buildings already on fire, spreading burning rubble.
GREAT SEATTLE FIRE
All of these possibilities contributed to the city’s destruction as Seattle burned to the ground in just twelve hours! John Back snuck out of Seattle the next day unaware the hero he had become. This was a chance for the pioneers to fix all their city problems. So the citizens were back at work rebuilding their city the very next day. The fire leveled the city, giving the settlers a chance to rebuild and correct many of the mistakes they had made when building the first city. They could raise the city above sea level, correcting the drainage problems they had been living with for too long.
But starting over doesn’t mean people will do things correctly the second time around. With the conflict of how to rebuild, business owners and city officials could not agree on the new outline or direction for the city. So, Seattle’s complicated redesign was the consequence of two separate groups building the city at the same time, which resulted in raised streets and steep sidewalks.
DEATH AND HANGINGS
In a town where law and order had little control of troubled townsfolk, many unfortunate things occurred. Here are a few stories that show how mass hysteria and corruption contributed to the tales of death and murder. A few of these events very well may have left spirits behind to haunt our city streets.
April 1854—The body of a tradesman from Pennsylvania was found in a shallow grave on the beach of Lake Union. Three Native Americans were accused of the crime. Later that day, angry townspeople were able to retrieve two of the natives and proceeded to drag them to the corner of First and Main where a group of men quickly tried them and found them guilty. Then the mob hung the two from the tree nearby. Later a third Native American was able to have a fair trial, and it was discovered that he was an innocent man. So it was believed the other two men were most likely innocent as well.
October 1881—Seattle police officer David Sires was having a beer at James Smith Saloon, on Second and Washington when a gun went off. Even though he wasn’t in uniform, he investigated. When he exited the saloon, many witness pointed to a man who was running away. Office Sires pursued on foot and was able catch up to the gunman at the corner of Third and Yesler. At this time the running man warned Sires to stay back, but Sires continued pursuing him without identifying himself. The man shot Sires in the throat. At this moment a woman stepped out to see what the commotion was and found the officer lying on the ground and the gunman running away. Officer Sires died a few days later, but only after he admitted he had failed to announce himself as he gave chase. He became Seattle’s first police officer killed in the line of duty.
