John Leary (1837-1905) came to Seattle in 1869 and was involved with virtually every major civic and commercial undertaking in Seattle in the 1870s and 1880s. He was the first president of the West Coast Improvement Company (WCIC), which shaped Ballard into the “Shingle Capitol of the World” (Leary Way still bears his name). Leary served three terms as a member of the Seattle city council (in 1873, 1875, and 1876), and one term as mayor in 1884. After his first wife, Mary Bixby Blanchard Leary (1839-1890) died, John married Eliza P. Ferry (1951-1935), a daughter of Elisha P. Ferry, the first governor of the State of Washington.
This image shows the home built by Dr. Gideon Allen Weed (1833-1905) and his wife, Adaline Melinda (Willis) Weed, also a physician, who had settled in Seattle in 1870. Weed served as mayor of Seattle from 1876 to 1878, later moving to California, first selling the home to Martin Van Buren Stacy (1837-1901), then to John Leary in about 1885. This home was located on the corner of Second Avenue and Madison Street. It was demolished in 1908 when Eliza Leary built the Leary Building (since 1951 the site of the Federal Reserve Bank building) after the new Leary mansion was finished in 1905 at 1551 Tenth Avenue North.
Photographer's number: 263
Caption information source: "Voters elect businessman John Leary as mayor of the City of Seattle on July 14, 1884," by Cassandra Tate, HistoryLink.org Essay 2785 Caption information source: http://pcad.lib.washington.edu/building/18427
ID Number: SHS258
Date: Circa 1890
Physical Description: 1 photographic print: b&w ; 5.5 x 7.5 in.
Additional Information: Digital copy of this item available thanks to funding from a 2016 Institute for Museum and Library Services grant. Metadata updated as part of a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services administered by the Library Services and Technology Act, through the Washington State Library, a division of the Office of the Secretary of State.
