141 results for: Great Seattle Fire (1889)
Photograph
View of Pioneer Square showing construction of Pioneer Building, circa 1890
In the aftermath of the Great Seattle Fire of 1889, a huge rebuilding effort resulted in the construction of many new brick and stone buildings. The Pioneer Building, at right in this photo, was one of several new buildings in the historic district designed by architect Elmer Fisher. This photo shows construction on the nearly completed building, located at the…
ID Number:2011.26.7.14
Date:Circa 1890
Photograph
Merchant’s Café and Trinity night club, Seattle, 2006
Claiming to be Seattle’s oldest continuously operating restaurant, the Merchant's Café, 109 Yesler Street, stands at the corner of Yesler and James Streets. Opening as the Merchant's Exchange Saloon in 1900, soon after Seattle’s 1889 Great Fire, its owners changed the name to Café during Prohibition. Over the years it has served as a restaurant, brothel, tavern and jazz club.…
ID Number:2014.43.1.1.ARCH516
Date:2006
Photograph
Chin Gee Hee Building, Seattle, circa 2018
Local Chinese merchant and labor contractor Chin Gee Hee (1844-1929) and a partner built two commercial buildings on the northeast corner of Washington Street and Second Avenue, in Seattle’s original Chinatown. After these were destroyed by Seattle’s 1889 Great Fire, the partners rebuilt them in brick. These were the Phoenix Hotel, facing Second Avenue, and the neighboring Chin Gee Hee…
ID Number:2014.43.2.2.ARCH121
Date:Circa 2018
Photograph
Chin Gee Hee Building, Seattle, circa 2018
Local Chinese merchant and labor contractor Chin Gee Hee (1844-1929) and a partner built two commercial buildings on the northeast corner of Washington Street and Second Avenue, in Seattle’s original Chinatown. After these were destroyed by Seattle’s 1889 Great Fire, the partners rebuilt them in brick. These were the Phoenix Hotel, facing Second Avenue, and the neighboring Chin Gee Hee…
ID Number:2014.43.2.2.ARCH121B
Date:Circa 2018
Ephemera
Rainier Hotel Company stock certificate, 1889
This stock certificate for the Rainier Hotel Company was issued on November 10, 1889, to Bailey Gatzert for 10 shares, valued at $500. The company owned the Rainier Hotel on Seattle's First Hill, located on Fifth Avenue between Marion Street and Columbia Street. The hotel was rushed to completion in 1889 following the Great Seattle Fire, which had destroyed much…
ID Number:2018.3.3.22
Date:1889
Ephemera
Denny Clay Company receipt, December 6, 1893
The Denny-Renton Clay and Coal Company (also Denny Clay Company) was founded in 1892 by Seattle pioneer Arthur A. Denny (1822-1899) when he bought out predecessor company Puget Sound Fire Clay Company. Clay's popularity over wood as a building material grew substantially after the Great Seattle Fire in 1889. Raw material was extracted with hydraulic mining equipment from heavy glacial…
ID Number:2018.3.3.78
Date:1893
Ephemera
Subscription receipt for Weekly Intelligencer, January 30, 1873
Seattle's oldest newspaper, The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, was founded in 1863 as The Weekly Intelligencer (also known as Seattle Gazette), when the city of Seattle was little more than a sawmill, a few dozen buildings, and a couple of hundred people. In 1881, The Intelligencer merged with The Seattle Post and moved into the newly completed Post building, on the northeast…
ID Number:2018.3.3.94
Date:1973
Ephemera
Bonney & Stewart Undertakers bill, 1894
Bonney-Watson funeral home in Seattle had its beginnings in 1868 when two cabinetmakers, Oliver Shorey (married to Mary Emeline Bonney) and A.P. Delin, branched out into making and supplying wooden caskets. In 1881 Shorey's brother-in-law, L. W. Bonney, became a partner in the firm, called Shorey-Bonney, until the Great Seattle Fire destroyed the establishment at Third and Columbia Streets in…
ID Number:2018.3.3.96
Date:1894
Cartographic material
Map Showing Buildings Along Waterfront Between Marion Street & Yesler Avenue, Seattle, circa 1895
Seattle in the late nineteenth century was a rapidly growing city, aided in no small part by the 1883 connection with the Northern Pacific Railway Company (NPRR). In 1890 the city's population doubled from the previous year to 40,000, boosted by the influx of people who saw opportunity in rebuilding after Seattle's Great Fire. Expansion led to conflicts over the…
ID Number:2019.3.9
Date:Circa 1895
Cartographic material
Seattle Sewerage Skeleton Map, July 1891
This 1891 map shows the proposed design for the Seattle Sewer System by Benezette Williams, a nationally renowned civil engineer who was called in by the City of Seattle to design its first municipal water system. After the Great Seattle fire in June of 1889, Seattle was forced to rethink and rebuild its water supply and fire prevention systems. Mayor…
ID Number:2019.3.27
Date:1891