City of Seattle Records

A. C. McClure & Co., Chicago, Ill. To His Excelency the Mayor; and the City Council of the City of Seattle in the County of King in the State of Washington; - Gentlemen;We the Subscribers Inhabitants and Resident Citizens of the City County and State aforesaid;Do most respectfully represent to your Hon Body - that we and each of us now are and for sometime past have been the owners and the holders of Real Property - within the Limits of your City; That we and each of us are now at this time owners and holders of Real Property upon Mill Street or Yesler Avenue between 12th and 16th Streets in the City of Seattle; That the Valuation of our Said Real Property was the Taxes Levied thereon by Virtue of Such Valuation for Street grade purposes; Are not by any means in [proportion?] to the Valuation or the taxes Levied on other Real Property for such purposes in our emediate [sic] vicinity; We farther respresent also - and we think that your Hon Body by a proper and a usefull examination into this matter will find that our Real Property Although far less in Amount - and Quantity - and also very inferior in Quality and Value - Is by virtue of Said Valuation and Assessment for Such purposes taxed more than 4 times over as high as Larger Quantitites And Supirior [sic] Quality of Real Property are Valued and Assessed in our emediate [sic] Vicinity; Wherefore we the undersigned your Petitioners do most Respectfully but Earnestly Ask and Pray that your Hon Body do emmediately [sic] proceed byordinance or in Some other proper And Appropriate Manner to examine into the conditions of this matter and to At Once [correct?] Such Errors As may be found there to exist-And to Equalize Such Valuation And Assesments as may be found to be exce[s?]sive

The Street Committee report that they have considered the application of S L Bowman for a street-railway franchise, made to the city council on the 27thof June; that they are opposed to the granting of any franchise for a street railway along Weller Street at prosent, while questions as to the grade of that street and the constructionof the roadway thereof are unsettled; but that Mr. Bowman has expressed to yout committee his willingness to m odify his application so as to ask for the franchise desired by him over the following route: Beginning on Washington Street at the west line of the sidewalk on the east side of Railroad Avenue; running thence east along Washington Street to the line of Sixteenth Street in Sander's Supplemental Plat projected northward; thence south through private property along said line of said Sixteenth Street projected northward, to and across Jackson Street; thence in an easterly, southeasterly or southerly direction through private property to Twenty Fifth Street in Sander's Supplemental Plat; thence south along said Twenty Fifth Street to State Street; thence east along State Street to the line of Twenty Fourth Street in the plat of Central Seattle projected northward; thence south along the line of said Twenty Fourth Street projected northward, to Grand Street; thence east along Grand Street to Twenty Fifth Street in said plat of Central Seattle; thence south along said Twenty Fifth Street to Walker Street; and thence in an easterly, southeasterly or southerly dierction , by the most practicable route, through private propety and along or across any street or streets necssary or desirable to be included in such route, to the south boundry line of the City of Seattle. And your committee respectfully report in favor of granting to said S L Bowman a franchise, with porper conditions and restrictions, for the constructions and operationofa street railway along the route above designated. July 2 1890 T E Jones Chairman Streets F A Twitchell Harry White

To the Hon. Mayor & Common Council of the City of Seattle - Gentlemen. The undersignedresidents of the eastern portion of the city, respectfully request your honorable body to order the southerly half of Jackson Street from Sixteenth Street to Lake View Street to be planked frorm the car track to the sidewalk on the south side of the street. Three Fourths of all the travel from the City to Lake Washington goes over Jackson Street, a portion of which is newly graded and filled some four feet deep, and this part particularly will be impassable as soon as wet weather sets in. Wherefore we pray that said work be ordered done and your petitioners will ever pray. R Morford C A Cram B M Padley H McDermid Harry Muhl A M Cale Geo H Bartell Anderson Jas Henry Jones A H Mafferd W E Burgess A G Keene J M Branson Thos Anderson Alex C Anderson M J Cook H Keller C S Rabison E A Frasier Levi Wintermuth C H Morford A W Pratt Chas N Evans Emil Anderson J C Levold E W Engel J S Cox