The Great Fire of June 6, 1889 was a turning point in Seattle's history, destroying 100 acres of Seattle's business district and waterfront, changing both the physical and political landscapes of the city. Albert Selden Burrows (1871-1944) wrote this letter his sister, Lillian, about the Great Fire. Selden Burrows taught in area schools and became the King County Superintendent of Schools in 1905. His father Albert Burrows (1837-1896) came to Seattle in 1882, homesteaded on the east side of Lake Washington, and donated the land for the first one-room school house in Bellevue in 1884.

This letter was begun the day after the fire. Selden Burrows could see the smoke from his home in Bellevue, and he and two other men went across the lake to see what was happening. The letter combined Burrows first-hand experience with rumors about the fire, from where and how the fire started and spread, to how the city reacted and what structures may or may not have been impacted.

Caption information source: "Bellevue Biographies: Albert Burrows, Heritage Center," Bellevue Reporter, April 19, 2012
Caption information source: Burrows-Warrne Photograph Collection, Circa 1884-1935, Finding Aid, University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections, http://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv97479.