This photo has previously been credited as the first building of the newspaper under the Seattle Post-Intelligencer masthead, photographed in 1881. But that may not be quite accurate. Other information would suggest that this was in fact the temporary office of the P-I after the Great Fire of 1889 burned the Post Building (108 Yesler Way) more or less to the ground.
Courtesy MOHAI
The first edition of The Weekly Intelligencer, Aug. 5, 1867. This was already the third name of the paper, less than four years after its first incarnation, the Seattle Gazette, had debuted.
MOHAI archives
The photo caption reads: Here is a stretch of the Georgetown District in 1908, occupied by two livery stables, two lumber sheds, a paint shop, a milk depot (at far right) and a feed store. In the left foreground a bit of early day street improvement is under way - the planking is being replaced. The kids sit in front of a shooting gallery, and the man by the telephone pole at right is waiting for a street car to take him in to 'town.'P-I File
This photo caption indicates it's an 1878 view of Seattle.P-I File
P-I file photos of early Seattle founders.P-I File
The December 1934 photo caption reads: Gertrude B. Conner with King County's road survey book No. 1, which was made in 1854 by a party of pioneers blazing Seattle's first highway through the wilderness.P-I File
The photo caption indicates this photo shows Native Americans near what's now Belltown. Date unknown. [This caption has been charged from the original caption, copied from the original P-I photo.]P-I File
The photo caption reads: Four handsome white horses pull one of Seattle's earliest "taxicabs" for a hack service operated by the Montana Stables which was located at 4th Ave. S. and Washington St. The stables were close to the depot, to meet trains and whisk the passengers to the hotels. This service flourished around 1904.P-I File
Fisherman's terminal in Ballard, circa 1914.P-I File
The caption for this 1904 photo reads: These young UW men earned some spending money during their Christmas vacations by thinning out the campus forests. The young men cut paths through the brush and second growth at $1.25 per day.P-I File
The photo caption for this 1900 photo caption read: A $1,350,000 gold shipment from the Dawson Yukon Territory to Seattle came on the S.S. Dolphin.P-I File
The caption for this 1891 photo reads: The barrel was important to the Seattle Packing Company of that day, and so were wooden shoes ... If you look closely you will find that the three men have adopted the Holland footgear to Puget Sound.P-I File
The caption to this 1905 photo caption reads: Here is what surely was the first zither orchestra in Seattle. The picture was taken at 115 Mercer Street.P-I File
The caption for this 1905 photo reads: The city's first permanent library.P-I File
The caption for this 1886 photo reads: U.S. Soldiers in Seattle during anti-Chinese riots. This photo is of the 14th Infantry answering roll call on Front St., now First Ave.P-I File
The caption for this 1878 photo reads: Second Avenue and Pike Street, looking south.P-I File
The caption for this 1878 photo reads: Between First and Second Avenues and Pike Street, looking south.P-I File
The caption for this photo reads: Seattle Founder's Day in 1922, taken on the porch of the Carkeek home.P-I File
The caption for this 1890 photo reads: In 1889 Mary and Thomas O'Meara brought their little family to Seattle and a year later purchased this cozy home facing Lake Union. Tom O'Meara is coming up the road with a can of fresh milk.P-I File
The Bon Marche Apple Show, 1914.P-I File
The caption for this photo reads: A view of the Court room, taken about 1885 by Colonel J.C. Haines.P-I File
The caption for this photo reads: Looking north on Front Street (now First Avenue) from Cherry Street at Seattle's wooden buildings and wooded hills in the 1860s.P-I File
A Pathe News automobile. Date unknown.P-I File
Pacific Coast Coal Company bunkers. Date unknown.P-I File
The photo caption reads: After the Great Seattle Fire of 1889, F.O. Munson, more fortunate than most, was doing business again.P-I File
The caption for this photo reads: Before the [Seattle] fire of June 6th, 1889.P-I File
The caption for this photo states the photo was taken in Seattle, but gives little other information.P-I File
The caption for this photo states only: Old view from the south ridge.P-I File
The caption for this photo reads: An old view of Seattle, before the Great Fire.P-I File
The caption for this 1889 photo reads: The temporary tent building of the New York Paint Company which also sold oils, varnishes and glass. For many months after June 6, 1889, most Seattle business firms were set up in similar quarters.P-I File
The photo captions reads: The world's first drive in service station, consisting of a hot water tank, a piece of heavy garden hose and a few lubricating products, looked like this when it opened for business in Seattle. (1907?) [Read more here.]P-I File
The January 1965 photo caption reads: A subterranean foot bridge used by Seattle's pioneers before the 1889 fire is examined by three members of the Junior Chamber of Commerce. They are, left to right, Luther Carr, Bob Ashley (holding flashlight) and Bill McKinley. The old bridge, at level of a former city street, stands in the basement of the Cannery Worker's Union at 213 S. Main St.P-I File
The caption for this photo reads: World's first modern gas station launched in Seattle in 1907. [Read more here.]P-I File
The caption for this photo indicates it shows Second Avenue in June 1927.P-I File
The photo caption indicates this is Seattle's first railroad terminal, circa 1882.P-I File
The caption for this photo indicates it's shows early Fremont. No date is given.P-I File
The caption for this photo indicates it shows Second Avenue in 1884.P-I File
The caption for this photo reads: Looking towards Green Lake in 1890. This house was built in that year by Judge F.A. McDonald. The Judge and his two sons and daughter are seen in the photograph.P-I File
A Fourth of July parade in Seattle, 1925.P-I File
The photo caption indicates this is a section of South Seattle, circa 1889.P-I File
The caption for this photo reads: In 1915, garbage disposal in Seattle was a problem. Here is Rig 71 of the Health and Sanitation Department: a steel-rim wheeled heavy cart, two disposal men, and a pair of patient white horses probably named Pat and Mike. As the wagon filled, slatted sides were erected and lined with old burlap, and the garbage was taken to the dump.P-I File
The photo caption reads: Seattle's first band at the time of the barbecue in September 1883. This picture was taken at the corner of First Avenue South and [South] Jackson Street.P-I File
The caption for this 1921 photo states: Old College Club at 5th [Avenue] and Seneca [Street].P-I File
That paper was the Seattle Gazette, which printed its first edition on Dec. 10, 1863 -- Seattle's first newspaper.
Publisher J.R. Watson, who was born in Ohio and moved west during the gold rush, became the owner of Olympia's Overland Press after its previous owner was shot to death. That same year, Henry Yesler, who opened the city's first steam-powered sawmill about a decade prior, invited him to live in Seattle rent-free ... if he established a newspaper for the city.
The paper had four pages, dense type and no photos. In addition to publisher, Watson wore the hats of the Gazette's editor and lone reporter for a time.
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"It is neither so large as a barn door nor the London Times; but it is the best we can offer for a beginning and is, we trust, sufficient for the time and place," Watson wrote in an inaugural message to readers.
After the first paper garnered a winning response from readers, Watson packed up his Olympia printing press and moved it to the Emerald City, to a building located on what is now the corner of First Avenue South and Yesler Way.
At that time, single copies of the paper cost 10 cents. A yearly subscription was $4.
By 1870, the city's population had grown to just over 1,000 residents.
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After a warm welcome, the paper struggled. After making multiple appeals to readers to subscribe, publication was suspended for two months in June 1864.
When the paper re-launched in August, it was given a (slightly) new name: The Seattle Weekly Gazette. Later that year, a semi-weekly competitor called the People's Telegram launched, so Watson began publishing "extras" for important news items that arrived by telegraph. The Telegram didn't last a month.
Watson eventually handed over his publication to Robert G. Head and the Seattle Publishing Company. It went through three additional owners before it wound up in the hands of S.L. Maxwell, who purchased the paper and its assets for $300.
Maxwell gave the publication a familiar name: the Weekly Intelligencer, first published on Aug. 5, 1867.
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The publication now had eight pages -- which meant twice as much real estate for advertisers. Maxwell sold the Weekly Intelligencer to David Higgins seven years later for $3,000.
Higgins updated the Intelligencer's printing press from a Ramage Model No. 913 to a Potter cylinder model powered by a steam engine, which lived in a building located at what is now First Avenue and Cherry Street. With the new press in place, the Weekly Intelligencer became a daily newspaper, with its first issue publishing on June 5, 1876.
Nearly two years later, one of the paper's editors, Thaddeus Hanford, bought the Daily Intelligencer for $8,000. His first mission: take out the competition.
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In 1878, Seattle was a three-paper town. In addition to the Daily Intelligencer, Puget Sound Dispatch and Pacific Tribune were circulating in Seattle. Hanford purchased both, folding them into the Intelligencer, and took editor Samuel L. Crawford in as a part-owner.
Meanwhile, a new daily, The Post, began printing in October 1878. However, the Post Publishing Company began with debt, and later constructed a $30,000, three-story brick headquarters for the publication. To save themselves from their financial troubles, in 1881, the owners of The Post arranged a merger with the Intelligencer.
The first issue of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer printed on Oct. 3, 1881.
The Seattle P-I passed through several owners over the next 40 years before Hearst (then headed by William Randolph), the current owner of the paper, purchased it in 1921. In that time, it grew in size, circulation and influence. By 1896, the Post-Intelligencer's circulation was almost equal to the circulations of all of Seattle's other newspapers combined.
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Decades later, Seattle's oldest newspaper became a pioneer again, as it became the first major daily publication to move online only in 2009.
Today, we're still here ... neither so large as a barn door nor the London Times, but, we trust, sufficient for the time and place.
*Note: Unless otherwise attributed, historical descriptions and other information was compiled from Historylink.org essays, MOHAI photo captions and SeattlePI archives.
![The photo caption indicates this photo shows Native Americans near what's now Belltown. Date unknown. [This caption has been charged from the original caption, copied from the original P-I photo.]](https://s.hdnux.com/photos/02/71/72/761525/4/ratio3x2_1920.webp "The photo caption indicates this photo shows Native Americans near what's now Belltown. Date unknown. [This caption has been charged from the original caption, copied from the original P-I photo.]")
![The caption for this photo reads: Before the [Seattle] fire of June 6th, 1889.](https://s.hdnux.com/photos/02/71/73/761579/4/ratio3x2_1920.webp "The caption for this photo reads: Before the [Seattle] fire of June 6th, 1889.")
![The photo captions reads: The world's first drive in service station, consisting of a hot water tank, a piece of heavy garden hose and a few lubricating products, looked like this when it opened for business in Seattle. (1907?) [Read more here.]](https://s.hdnux.com/photos/03/10/63/822515/4/ratio3x2_1920.webp "The photo captions reads: The world's first drive in service station, consisting of a hot water tank, a piece of heavy garden hose and a few lubricating products, looked like this when it opened for business in Seattle. (1907?) [Read more here.]")
![The caption for this photo reads: World's first modern gas station launched in Seattle in 1907. [Read more here.]](https://s.hdnux.com/photos/03/10/63/822521/4/ratio3x2_1920.webp "The caption for this photo reads: World's first modern gas station launched in Seattle in 1907. [Read more here.]")
![The photo caption reads: Seattle's first band at the time of the barbecue in September 1883. This picture was taken at the corner of First Avenue South and [South] Jackson Street.](https://s.hdnux.com/photos/03/11/00/823343/4/ratio3x2_1920.webp "The photo caption reads: Seattle's first band at the time of the barbecue in September 1883. This picture was taken at the corner of First Avenue South and [South] Jackson Street.")
![The caption for this 1921 photo states: Old College Club at 5th [Avenue] and Seneca [Street].](https://s.hdnux.com/photos/03/11/00/823346/4/ratio3x2_1920.webp "The caption for this 1921 photo states: Old College Club at 5th [Avenue] and Seneca [Street].")
