USA > Washington > King County > History and progress of King County, Washington > Part 8
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Judge Asa S. Mercer about 1863 collected private contributions towards a fund which enabled him to go to Boston and there place a proposition before the public for a lot of girls and young women who had been made orphans by the Civil War to accompany him to the State of Washington. Quite a number evinced a desire to go, but when the time came to start only eleven had Found courage to leave their friends and make a journey of seven
thousand miles into a wilderness but thinly settled with entire strangers to them.
A few of these had to avail themselves of the means provided by Mr. Mercer but most of them paid their own way. They left New York in March, 1864, came by the way of the Isthmus of Panama and San Francisco. At the latter place quarters were secured for the party on the bark " Torrent" which brought them to Port Gamble, then called Leekalet, and from there the sloop " Kidder" brought them to Seattle, May 16, 1864. Judge Mercer sailed again from New York January 6, 1866 with up- wards of two hundred war orphans, vouching for the in- telligence and moral character of all the persons accom- panying him.
The undertaking was approved by the President and Cabinet but not officially. Ninety-six days on the pro- peller "Continental." a 1600 ton ship. brought them to San Francisco via the Straits of Magellan. The people were then sent North in bunches of ten to forty, on the lumber ships trading between Sound ports and the C'ali- fornia metropolis.
THE OLD POOR FARM BUILDING AT GEORGETOWN STILL BEING USED TO ACCOMMODATE THE COUNTY'S INDIGENT
WASHINGTON'S FIRST GOVERNOR
Major Isaac 1. Stevens was the first governor of the territory. By proclamation made from the summit of the Rocky Mountains, September 29th, 1853, he announced his assumption of the duties of the governorship. Stevens County, in this state, was named in his honor, and when, in 1889, the state government was organized, this large county was divided and the new part named "Ferry Connty. " in honor of Elisha P. Ferry, the first Governor of the State of Washington.
The State is divided into two parts by the Caseade Mountains. Eastern Washington contains an area of over 40,000 square miles and Western Washington about 25,000 square miles. The climate east of the mountains is a little colder in winter and slightly warmer in summer than it is in the western part of the state; there is also less rainfall in the eastern part.
The genesis of names in Western Washington is a matter of interest. In 1592 a Greek navigator claimed to have discovered the straights that bear his name-"Juan de Fuca." In 1790 a Spanish exploring expedition en- tered the straits. They added something to the informa- tion previously obtained and left the impress of their
work behind them in the names they gave to the waters they visited. Thus we have Canal de Haro. Sequim Bay, Rosario Strait and the names Camano, Texada. Port An- geles, San Juan, Lopez. Guemes and Fidalgo, and other names of a kindred sort. In 1792 Capt. George Vancouv- er. commander of the British sloop "Discovery." entered these waters. He had a crew of 100 men. many of whom Were officers and experts appointed by the British Gov- ernment for special service in the expedition. He named the waters now known as Puget Sound after one of his officers, Peter Puget. Ile named Hood Canal after Lord Hood. Mt. Baker was named in honor of Lient. Baker, one of his officers. Mt. Rainier, whose snow-crowned heights rise to an altitude of 14,444 feet the mountain that has stood as a sentinel along the pathway of the years and silently witnessed the incoming and outgoing of the eentries, he named in honor of Admiral Rainier, of the British navy. He gave us the names Protection Island, Marrowstone Point, Foulweather Bluff, Deception Pass. Port Orchard. Cypress Island and Vancouver Island. King County leans right up against the foothills of Mt. Rainier.
Page Forty
HISTORY AND PROGRESS of
PUBLIC BUILDINGS
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O.W.R&.N DEPOT UNION STATION
Federal Post Office &- Custom House
Public Library
Providence Hospital
King County owes no apology for its public buildings and parks. They are second to none others in the United States. They are modern in every respect and a credit to the people who paid for them.
Those buildings belonging to the City of Seattle, the Federal Government, and Public Service Corporations are uniformly of the best and most serviceable type.
THE FIRST POSTOFFICE.
Until August 27th, 1853, the settlers in King County had to depend upon uncertain chances for either letters or papers. At that date national recognition of Seattle was given by the establishment of a postoffice and the appointment of Mr. Arthur A. Denny the first postmaster. who opened the office in his dwelling house, which was a log building, situated at the corner of what is now known
as Marion Street and First Avenue. A man had been pre- viously employed to go to Olympia to proenre whatever mail matter was there for parties residing here. He re- turned on August 16, and brought twenty-two letters and fourteen newspapers, but what was brought on the 27th he does not remember only that it was a very small amount.
Mail was delivered in Seattle by boat until the year 1867. when a contract for the "overland" delivery of mail by way of Puyallup was let. From Puyallup it was brought on pony by trail, a distance of forty miles. The contract was taken by (. H. Hanford then a young man, later a federal judge, who "rode the mail" for one year at a consideration of $500 per annum, after which he was underbid on the job. Postmaster Pumphrey. in 1875, moved the office to the corner of Mill Street, now Yesler way. and Post Street. He was sneceeded by Thomas W. Prosch on July 18, 1875. After serving two years, Prosch was succeeded, on June 25, 1877, by Ossian JJ. Carr. Mr. Carr held the office nine years, the longest continous ser- vice of an administration since the beginning of Seattle's postal service.
John M. Lyon was appointed on January 5, 1887, served little over a year, and was succeeded on April 5. 1889, by Albert M. Brookes. Mr. Lyon moved the office to the Boston National Bank Block. on Second Avenue near Columbia Street. It was located here when the fire occurred. Because it was regarded as being too far out of the business district at this point. Postmaster Brookes moved the office to the north side of Columbia Street be- tween Second and Third Avennes, and on this site it re- mained until the rapid growth of the thriving city made it necessary in 1889 to seek larger quarters.
Griffith Davis became postmaster on February 14. 1891 ; Gilbert S. Meem on April 8, 1895, and George M. Stewart on March 3, 1899. At the time of Mr. Stewart's appointment the quarters of the postoffice were being moved to the Arlington Block, at the corner of First Ave- une and University Street. At that time there was al- most constant complaint that the office was situated too far away From the business center.
Several years later, or about 1902. the surprising growth of the district north of Madison brought the post- office in the center of the business district and there it remained until the occupation of the present Federal Building, at Third Avenne and Union Street, on November 1. 1901. Postmaster Stewart was succeeded in November, 1908, by George F. Russell, who prior to that time had served as city treasurer of Seattle. Edgar Battle, the present postmaster, was appointed by President Wilson on September 10. 1913.
The carrier service of the Seattle postoffice was put into effect on September 1. 1887, with F. C. Henry, John P. Jones, Andrew J. Snyder and R. H. Brooks as the first carriers.
The Seattle post office is now twenty-first in size among all the offices in the United States. It is one of the five exchange offices in the country for handling for- eign mail. The present building is already so crowded that the government will seeure a site for a branch office near the depots, in the south end of the city, and it is here that the foreign mail will be handled. Of this sort of mail 20,012 sacks were dispatched from Seattle during 1913.
Spread over the city are now fourteen civil-service
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postoffice stations and forty-seven contract offices for the convenience of the public. With one exception, all the postoffices of the State of Washington and of Alaska re- mit surplus postal and money order funds to the Seattle institution. This amounts to $5,000,000 annually. Its payroll covers 300 rural carriers in the state. 125 railway mail clerks and the 320 employes of the office, the 745 persons receiving $1,400,000 each year.
An act of appropriation March 2, 1899 gave $300,000 for the erection of a Federal building at Seattle. Two years later it was increased to $750,000. By June 2, 1902, *
Architect-A. Warren Gould.
A. Warren Gould, of Seattle, architect, was born January 15, 1872.
Mr. Gould received a public school education and studied architecture under professors of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His first employment was in connection with the enterprises of his elder brothers in the contracting and building business in Boston. At the age of twenty-two he embarked in that city independently in professional work. He continued there twelve years, achieving success and an enviable reputation. During that period he executed the de- signs for many public and private buildings, including the Women's Prison on Deer Island, Boston Harbor, the Phillips Brooks School, the Benjamin Cushing School, and the City Stables for the city of Boston; the Dudley Club at Roxbury, and the Women's Club at Dorchester, Boston, Mass.
Removing to Seattle, in 1904, Mr. Gould continued his individual practice there until 1909, designing among other structures, the American Bank and Empire Buildings, the Standard Furniture Company's Store Building, the Georgian Hotel, etc. From June 1, 1909, a partnership with E. Frere Champney under the firm style of Gould & Champney existed for two years during which period the Young Women's Chris- tian Association Building, New Richmond Hotel and the Seattle Electric Company's Building were designed. Since dissolving this partnership, Mr. Gould has received many additional com- missions, chief among which is the New King County Court House.
Mr. Gould is married and resides at the Washington Hotel Annex, and is a member of the Rainier Club, Seattle Golf and Country Club, Seattle Automobile Club and Seattle Commercial Club.
Pioneer Square and Its Totem Pole.
Pioneer Square was donated to Seattle, Pioneer Building now occupies the site of the old Yesler Mill. The Totem pole was brought from Tongas Island in 1897. The Indian chief for whom it had been carved had paid $250 for it, and its history dates back 110 years. The party of tourists bringing it to Seattle did so at an expense of $1,750.
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In 1890 Judge Austin came to Seattle and built the ele- vator in West Seattle of which he was the manager. He shipped the first cargo of grain from Seattle, sending it on the "Mary L. Burrell."
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The Seattle Feed Mills was an enterprise established in 1886 by Mr. J. H. Walker, an experienced miller from Oregon. The various meals and graham flours were turned out and the great excellence of Puget Sound oats was fully developed. *
The Pioneer Boot & Shoe Dealers-as a separate line- was commenced by H. Jones & Co. in 1867.
$900,000 was appropriated under condition that the site should not be more than $200,000.
James Knox Taylor was supervising architect for the Goverment department. Frances W. Grant supervising architect in charge. It has a frontage of 196 Feet on Third Avenue and 153 feet on Union Street. Area of site one acre. The site was purchased from Jules Redelsheim- er February 24, 1902, for the sum of $174,750.
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Contractors Megrath and Duhamel. Work commenced November, 1903.
Water Works-Ancient and Modern.
Water was first delivered by the gravity system from Cedar River late in 1900.
The first pipes laid to carry water were to the old Uni- versity grounds, now occupied by the White, Henry, Stuart, Cobb and P .- 1. Buildings and the Arena, from a spring about 500 feet to the eastward.
The first water system was begun by the installation of very crude contrivances by Henry L. Yesler. It consisted in the building of a very small tank just north of Yesler Way between Third and Fourth Avenues. The water was con- ducted to the Yesler Mill at the foot of the street in an open trough which was later replaced by a wooden pipe made from boring twelve-inch logs in six-foot lengths. This system was also used to furnish water power to Wooden's Tannery, which then stood on the present site of the Prefontaine Building. The water was obtained from a stream of some size that originated in a depression at a point near Eighth Avenue and Madison Street, Another source of supply was at Seventh and Columbia called the Lowman Spring. The spring at the corner of Seventh and Cherry is still flowing through a three-fourths inch pipe and is used in emergencies.
The Union Water System on Queen Anne Hill was pur- chased by the city in 1891.
The Spring Hill Water Company, incorporated in 1881, was purchased by the city in January, 1890, for $352,265.
The pipe known as No. 1 was put into commission Jan- uary, 1901, giving twenty-five million gallons per day.
Pipe No. 2 delivered water on June 21, 1909, in Volunteer Park Reservoir. Combined delivering capacity is sixty-six mil- lion gallons a day.
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In 1883 Seattle had its first real estate "hoom." Prices advanced rapidly. %
Snoqualmie Falls is 270 feet in height. From it, both in Seattle and Tacoma, has been generated a 17,500 horse- power force that has materially assisted in making Seattle attain some of its well deserved reputation as a splendidly lighted city.
The current generated by the company at Snoqualmie Falls entered the city July 31, 1899. * *
At Latona a tunnel has been dug beneath the bottom of Lake Union to carry the water pipes and electric wires under the lake out of the way of the ships using the Lake Washing- ton Canal. The tunnel lies between 30 and 40 feet below the bottom of the lake. It is a tube 12 feet from floor to ceiling walled in two feet of solid concrete and 900 feet long. The contract was let for $183,000. Completed, it cost the city over a quarter of a million dollars. George H. Worley was the contractor on the job.
Pag. Forty-two
HISTORY AND PROGRESS of
Electric Light and Power
The first central station incandescent electric lighting plant west of the Missouri River was delivering current in Seattle on March 23, 1886.
(From annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 27, page 222. )
The fifty-year franchise under which the Seattle Electric Company supplies power and light to private consumers was granted in 1902. The plant which the company owns though erected primarily to furnish the power to generate its street car system, supplies the greater part of the light and power consumed by private users.
The Seattle-Tacoma Power Company is operated under a thirty-six-year franchise granted in 1903.
The Everett & Interurban Railway Company was incor- porated by Fred E. Sander, Mary 29, 1902. In 1905 the line had been built to fifteen miles north of Hall's Lake. The property was re-incorporated under the name of the Seattle- Everett & Interurban Railway and in 1907 sold to the interests represented by Stone & Webster and changed by them to the Pacific-Northwest Traction Company.
The only street railway companies which had not been in the hands of the receivers, before the consolidation of 1903 were the Madison Street and the Union Trunk Line in the original consolidation in March, 1900, were 661% miles of mileage, increased to 78 in March, 1902, and 95 miles at the end of 1903. In 1915 the street railway company had 197 miles of single track on 111 miles of street; over 500 cars for passengers were in use.
The current for the electric company comes from three plants, on the Snohomish River, White River and at Electron.
The Puget Sound Traction, Light & Power Company's vast interests in this section of the state are also shown by the following data: In 1913, in the whole system-which includes the street railways in Seattle, Tacoma, Bellingham and Everett, and the various interurbans-492 miles of single tracks were operated over 337 miles of streets and other rights- of-way. The total number of cars was 1,073, of which 623 were passenger cars. The total number of employes in 1913 was 3,799, 2,538 of them being on the Seattle division. The total number of passenger car miles operated during the year in Seattle was 12,701,151, and for the entire system 20,231,- 067. Including the freight and work cars the total number of car miles for Seattle was 13,087,936, and the entire sys- tem 21,534,221. In Seattle, passengers were carried during 1913 as follows: Revenue passengers, 76,726,857; transfer passengers, 23,431,345; free, 4,885,508, making a grand total of 105,043,508. The Seattle division, therefore, carried the equivalent of the entire population of the United States and without a single fatality among its passengers.
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Street and Commercial Lighting Munici- palized.
In course of its civic expansion the municipal ownership idea became popular. So Seattle decided to go into the electric business as a public undertaking. The municipal system owes its existence largely to the efforts of George F. Cotterill and R. H. Thomson, the latter city engineer from 1892 to 1911. They brought the need of such a plant, in order to secure the best and most economical street and municipal light, to the attention of Seattle's citizens and were instrumental in secur- ing the necessary state legislation and the incorporation in the city charter of the provisions which made it possible for
the city to undertake this enterprise. As the outcome of this work in behalf of a municipal lighting and power system, the city council submitted a bond issue to the voters of the city, who, on March 4, 1902, decided in favor of the first issue of $590,000. The source of power was to be Cedar River, in King County, and little time was lost in starting work. The work on the first plant was finished in 1904 and in January, 1905, the city took over the street lighting system, which had been operated prior to this time by the Seattle Electric Company.
In 1904, with the voting of another bond issue, this time of $250,000, the city undertook to enter the field of commer- cial lighting in competition with the private electric company. The first municipal light was furnished to home and business houses in September, 1905.
In January, 1905, the city took over the street lighting system, which had been operated prior to this time by the Se- attle Electric Company.
In 1904, with the voting of a bond issue of $250,000, the city undertook to enter the field of commercial lighting in competition with the private electric company. The first municipal light was furnished to homes and business houses in September, 1905. Bonds for an extension were authorized by the voters on March 6, 1906, for $600,000. Further neces- sity of extending the distribution system to all parts of the city resulted in the voting of $800,000 more bonds on Decem- ber 29, 1908. In April, the lighting department was made separate from the water department by charter amendment.
In 1910 there appeared a demand for more power and it was planned to develop the Cedar River site to its full ca- pacity, by the use of a large concrete dam. Work begun 1912.
First Electric Lighting Plant.
In 1886 a small electric light plant was started in a board shack on Jackson Street between Occidentl and Second South. In 1888 the installation was completed. The Seattle Electric Light Company was organized and J. M. Frink became presi- dent. The gave Seattle its first electric light on March 16, 1888. In 1889, early, an extension was made in the basement at the corner of Post and Seneca Streets. The plants were wiped out in the fire of 1889. Another plant was started five weeks after on Eighth Avenue and Charles Street.
On Monday, March 4, 1890, Dr. E. C. Kilbourne was given a franchise, that day he leased the old power house of the Seattle Consolidated Electric Railway Company at the foot of Pike Street. A contract for tse pole line was let to Baker & Balch. Within sixty days Dr. Kilbourne was delivering light in Seattle. There were no meters in those days, so a flat rate was charged, being $1.50 per month for a 16-candle- power lamp burning from starting time untid 10:30 p. m.
On October 1, 1892, the Seattle General Electric and the Home consolidated as the Union Electric Company. In 1899, the Stone & Webster interests acquired a controlling interest and the big Boston corporation got its first foothold in Seattle by so doing.
The city nas a 1,500-kilowatt water power generating plant on the shore of Lake Union which is fed by the overflow of the high service reservoir of the water department. It was finished in 1912. It serves the purpose of an auxiliary in
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case of accident to the main plant.
The city plant has an investment of more than $5,000,000, employs 240 men, and does a business of approximately $900,- 000 annually.
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Development of Snoqualmie Falls.
In 1898 Charles H. Baker, a civil engineer whose father was a prominent Chicago broker, designed and built a plant at Snoqualmie Falls with a capacity of 6,000 kilowatts and supplied power from this plant for lighting and power pur- poses in Tacoma, Seattle and, later, in Everett. They also served a number of small towns adjacent to those cities. This plant was acquired in 1911 hy the Puget Sound Traction, Light & Power Company, which also acquired at the same time all of the properties under the management of the firm of Stone & Webster.
The Puget Sound Traction, Light & Power Company, of which Jacoh Furth was president at the time of his death, controls and operates all of the light, power and railway prop- erties in Seattle, the interurban between Everett and Seattle and the interurhan between Seattle and Tacoma, the only ex- ception being the municipal lighting plants of Tacoma and Seattle, the lately constructed municipal railway in Seattle, completed in 1914, consisting of abont three miles of track running from Third and Pine to the south shore of Lake Wash- ington canal, near Ballard; the Lake Burien line, seven miles long, running from Spokane Avenue in a southerly direction to Lake Burien, and the Loyal Heights Railway, incorporated March 24, 1906, by Harry W. Treat, and running cars over about two miles of tracks between Twenty-fourth Avenue Northeast and Sixty-seventh Street.
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Seattle Chamber of Commerce organized on April 17, 1882. J. R. Lewis, president; Bailey Gatzert, vice-president. * * * * *
Seattle Commercial Club formed November 6, 1904. G. H. Revelle, president; Homer L. Bull, Secretary.
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First Paved Street.
First Avenue was the first street to be graded and side- walked in the city of Seattle or King County. The contract for it was let July 10, 1876. It was also the first street to be paved with brick.
The relative magnitude of the first improvement of Front Street was great. From near the foot of Cherry Street to Pike Street a high strong bulkhead of logs was put in on the south- west side of the street twenty-five feet high in places. At several parts of the street at high tide the waters of the bay reached into the east or inland side of the street before this improvement was made. Nearly every bit of the Colman Block stands where the tide flowed fifty-five years ago.
The trees from which the logs for the cribbing were cut grew on the hillside between where the Washington Hotel now stands and the hay south of Virginia Street. The city en- gineers at that time were Eastwick, Morris & Co.
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Street Railways.
The Front Street Cable Railway Company was incorpor- ated October 24, 1880, with capital of $600,000, and the offi- cers in 1890 were Jacob Furth, president; H. G. Struve, vice- president.
The first street railroad was built by F. H. Osgood about 1883 and horses were used to haul the cars. The south end of the track was at the intersection of Yesler Way and James, and it went up James to Second, thence to Pike, thence to First Avenue and down that to Battery Street. Service hourly.
The office, car barn and stables were combined as one in a building upon the site of the Masonic Building, corner of Second and Pike.
There was much complaint even in those days over the service. Something had to be done. It seemed to Mr. Os- good that this something was electricity. in the face of the ridicule of the Boston men, despite the fact that its possi- bilities were practically unknown, Mr. Osgood took what is now known as a gambler's chance and gave orders to equip his line with electricity. In place of the four "bob-tail" cars he ordered five new electric cars. In place of the car barns he installed a power plant. In place of the "mule skinners" who drove his horses he engaged motormen. The line was ready in 1888 and began operation during the winter of that year.
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