History of Seattle

The city of Seattle was founded in 1850 when 22 settlers established a permanent settlement in what is now Pioneer Square. Before then, the area was inhabited by the Duwamish tribe. In thanks to the 1859 Gold Rush and abundant natural wealth, Seattle rapidly expanded into the largest and most important commercial, industrial, naval, and cultural center in the American West. It's history is marked by inner-city political and racial turmoil in addition to constant rivalry over industries and cultural dominance. After Okanagan was admitted into the Union as the 35th state in 1861, Seattle was designated as the state capital after the original candidate, Ellensburg, was caught ablaze.

After developing its own and acquiring part of California's after the 1913 California earthquake, Seattle would become world-famous for its motion picture industry, serving as a tertiary force in the industry to Hollywood and New York City. World War II revitalized the city's previously destitute ship-building industry as well as surging its high-tech aeronautic engineering and construction industry. Seattle is also famous as a center for musical production.

After the American Civil War, Seattle's government would come under the tight grip of a Republican political machine until the turn of the 20th century, when it was uprooted by a strong popular socialist movement. Repeated attempts to quell such politics has given the city notoriety for its cycle between center-right liberal and far-left progressive politics. Today, Seattle's far left has persisted into modern day through progressivism, social democracy, and democratic socialism. Seattle's population growth slowed in the 1960's as mostly middle-class and white families moved to surrounding suburbs. Much of Seattle was [and to an extent, still is] plagued by gang activity & warfare, police corruption, crumbling housing infrastructure, homelessness, violent racial and class tensions, and a pervasive frotteuristic culture. Revitalization efforts pushed by local governance and gentrification has rehabilitated much of the city's social ills, but the city has yet to be relieved of its gritty harsh blue collar image.

Early History

The land that is now Seattle has been inhabited for at least 4,000 years since the end of the last glacial period. In the mid 19th century, the people now known as the Duwamish Tribe and Suquamish, along with other associated Coast Salish tribes and peoples were living in some 13 villages within the present-day city limits of Seattle. Continuous human habitation within the city limits is evident on the western bank of the Duwamish river, dating back to the 6th century C.E. By 1800, however, the site, for unknown reasons, was abandoned.

George Vancouver was the first European to visit the Seattle area in May 1792 during his 1791-95 expedition to chart the Pacific Northwest.

The founding of the city of Seattle is typically dated to the arrival of the Harrison Group on November 16, 1850, however, Lucas Alderson and Joseph Collins (British subjects who immigrated to Oregon Country despite the 1846 treaty) had already established a small farming settlement named New Plymouth in what is now currently the neighborhood of Tamworth. The landing site of the Harrison Group, Olympic Point, was quickly abandoned because of its rough terrain and volatile waves. The group moved towards the current site of Pioneer Square, on the southeast coast of Lake Haahchu. Naming the area Kniegelenk after its joint-like geography, the settlers quickly began to spread out upon the isthmus, divvying up the land among families, and creating a bartering system with meat and produce. A year later, on November 13, 1851, the Denny Party would land at Alki Point. The two settlements would remain isolated before establishing relations in 1852. After a harsh winter, much of New York Alki's population would resettle in Kniegelenk, but many would stay in New York Alki (which would later be renamed to just Alki). Its precarious resource situation would make it dependent on Kniegelenk's produce until the 1859 Gold Rush. Kniegelenk and the New Plymouth settlement would generally remain knowledgeable, but isolated of each other, until the Gold Rush. Georg Harrison and Lucas Alderson were the first commissioners of Pierce County after its creation in 1852. Kniegelenk would change its name to Seattle in 1860.

Seattle's early economy was dependent upon the timber industry, shipping logs to San Francisco. A climax forest of trees up to 1,000–2,000 years old and towering as high as nearly 400 ft (122 m) covered much of what is now Seattle. Today, none of that size remains anywhere in the world. Seattle would grow to dominate the timber industry after the construction of the first steam sawmill in the region by Manfred Harrison. The timber industry would face an explosion of profit after much of Seattle's forest would be removed to create living space for gold prospectors settling in the region.

Not being able to construct a proper port up until the 20th century, Alki would be deprived of monetary inflow as Seattle would be the primary hub for any maritime trade; but this would quickly change as Alki became the secondary (the gap between Alki and Seattle being minimal) landing site for gold prospectors. Though this would mean that Seattle no longer competed with Tacoma for regional hegemony, Alki would become its main rival. On the other hand, Tamworth would only see stark growth during the Klondike Gold Rush, in which it's economic woes from the 1893 Panic were remedied and it'd transform from a village into a small city.

William Rademaker, the first man to find gold within the region, capitalized off of Seattle's surging economy; buying swathes of land. This would include much of the real estate that composes modern Downtown Seattle and the University of the Territory of Washington (which would later become the University of Okanagan). Rademaker would oversee much of the mining industry and would quickly become the region's wealthiest citizen. Real estate records show that before the gold rush, businesses were evenly spread out among the land claim but afterwards they began to form on or adjacent to Rademaker's land.

Contrasting the harsh conservative moral and legal crackdowns of Seattle, Alki and New Plymouth's economies would benefit from the introduction of liquor, prostitution, and gambling. For Alki, some say that Maynard realized that something was needed to attract the loggers and sailors who operated in Seattle, who formed the majority of Seattle's population. Early Alki and New Plymouth would become known as weekend getaways for Seattle's laborious population.

Despite previously friendly relations, the onslaught of prospectors sparked much tension that would boil into the Battle of Seattle and the greater Puget Sound War.

In 1867, a young French Canadian Catholic priest named Francis X. Prefontaine arrived in Alki and decided to establish a parish there. At that time, Alki had no Catholic church and only a few parishioners. Fr. Prefontaine counted only ten Catholics in the town and only three attended the first mass that he conducted. His bishop, Augustin-Magloire Blanchet, whose cathedral was in Vancouver, Washington, gave Fr. Prefontaine permission to build a church there, as long as the priest could raise the funds himself and it would cost the diocese nothing. Prefontaine raised the money by holding fairs around the Puget Sound area. During 1868–69 he built the church, doing much of the work himself, and in 1869 he opened Alki's first Catholic church at Fifteenth Avenue and Atlantic Street, on the site where the present-day Prefontaine Building stands. The church would become the center of Alki's 'Catholic Dollar' neighborhood, which is composed of the Italian, Irish, Spanish, and German quarters.

Railroad rivalry

The Northern Pacific Railway announced that they had selected the [at the time] village of Tacoma to be the site of its Western terminus over Seattle for its transcontinental railroad on July 14, 1873. It seems to be that the railroad barons had gambled on the advantage that they could gain from purchasing the cheap land on and around the hypothetical terminus instead of bringing it to the already established Seattle. Despite this, Seattle made numerous attempts at establishing it's own railroad or leveraging one to come to the city. Such efforts would culminate into William Rademaker's Transnational Columbian Railway (the TCR); a fledgling railway intended for the Puget Sound region but aspiring to serve the entire continent. Through a series of public relations campaigns and clearing of land on the Elliot Bay waterfront, construction would swiftly begin on September 12 of the same year. Rademaker ensured that construction be swift and efficient, attempting to close the gap of strength between him and other rail companies in the nation due to his late start. Much of the laborers for Rademaker's rail would be settled gold prospectors and, more controversially, Chinese emigrants. The Transnational Columbian Railway Company would win Seattle's position for freight transport, superseding the efforts of Northern Pacific. Rademaker's efforts to construct a railroad so quickly, though efficient, meant the eviction of many residents, the draining of many of the region's natural resources, and operational encroachment onto Native-American territory. The initial railway spanned from Makersville to Walla Walla.

As construction progressed and its expenses steepened, the primarily [German] white labor base was steadily replaced by migrant Chinese workers. Paid less and treated as more expendable, the employing of the Chinese was considered a net positive for Rademaker. This left many white workers unemployed, while the traditionally white Labor District (modern Makersville) developed into an ethnically Chinese neighborhood. Rademaker, a Dutchman himself, ensured that no Dutch were affected by the demographic swapping. Despite that, any white (including Dutch) workers left in Rademaker's employment quickly shuffled into frenzied union organization. The most prominent of these unions was the Federated Western Worker's Union of America (FWWUA). These events would lead to a rash of union organization across all sectors of industry in Seattle as well as embedding long-lasting ethnic tension among Seattle's German, Dutch, and Chinese populations.

The Great Fire of Halloween

By early 1875, construction of the Labor District-Walla Walla rail had been finished and construction of a railyard was nearing completion. Construction was periodically interrupted by instances of racial violence against rail workers. Completion of the main rail depot (now Seattle Metro's Industrial & Concord station) occurred in October of 1875, but would be quickly done away with.

Seattle's rapid industrial expansion would come to a grinding halt with the Great Fire of Halloween. On the 16 of October, 1875, approximately at 3am, Robert Evans, an arsonist responsible for the Duwamish River bear burnings, was employed by the Northern Pacific Railway to sabotage the beginning operations of the Transnational Columbian Railway. Having broken into the rail depot sometime in the middle of the night, he ignited a fuel container within the structure. The flames quickly enveloped the building and would spread out further, burning 24 city blocks. Much of the Labor District was built with bricks and were only left singed but many buildings in Makersville, adjacent to the depot on the westside, were constructed primarily out of wood and as result were most damaged. Two of the cities wharves were also damaged.

Despite the fire's great damage to city infrastructure and many businesses, rebuilding efforts were expeditious. New zoning codes implemented after the fire resulted in a Makersville of brick buildings rather than wood. On the part of Francis Hopkins, Seattle's most prominent city planner, William Rademaker, and with support from mayor Georg Harrison, organized for many buildings to be reconstructed in the architectural style of Brick Gothic. The three all believed that utilizing a unique architectural style would motivate reconstruction efforts and would advertise Seattle as an idiosyncratic city worth settling and investing into. In a single year, the region's population doubled from 21,000 to 43,000. This was largely because of the enormous amount of construction jobs that opened up in the city as a result of the fire.

Robert Evans, the perpetrator of the initial arson, would remain unapprehend until May of 1876.

Ethnic Riots of the late 1800's

The start of the fire was originally presumed to have been a work-related accident, but that conclusion was quickly rebuked as no time shifts would have been allocated to any workers at such an early part of the day. An investigation would be conducted by both local authorities and the TCR. As reconstruction continued into 1876, ethnic animosity would fuel rumor of the perpetrator. It would become common theory that the arsonist was a disheveled German who was fired by the TCR. Ethnic relations would further deteriorate as the western portion of the Labor District began to be populated by Dutch and Chinese who had lost their homes in the fire. German animosity of the two groups would spread to new arrivals to Seattle. Rademaker himself did not permit the employment of many Germans, and numerous other reconstruction efforts were also organized by Dutchmen. Fearing having come all the way to Seattle, just to be outworked and underpaid by the Chinese and Dutch, the general populace of Seattle began to resent the two populations. The Dutch would begin to be characterized as racially traitorous and as they developed their own businesses in the Labor District and redeveloping Makersville, greedy and miserly. Assaults on Dutch and Chinese occurred (such as the Ninth Avenue Brawl), but were infrequent.

February Worker Riot and Formation of the Amber Guard

Despite still holding a great bias for fellow Dutchmen and the laborious Chinese, Rademaker believed that there was an economic incentive not only for himself, but the city, to hire new arrivals as a part of the reconstruction effort. Introduction of non-Dutch and Chinese laborers began to personalize animosity between the two groups. Before long, the two groups would break out into fighting. The first instance of violence would be the assault of a Dutch manager by a mob of 16 workers who accused him of extending their work hours without accommodating increased pay. Though 15 of the workers were put on trial for the crime, one of the workers, Abraham Schmidt, was lynched in retribution by a protest mob of 8 Dutchmen, including the assaulted manager. Despite swift police action in apprehending members of the lynch mob, protests over the string of violence would begin after the recovery of Schmidt's body. Protests were most violent on construction sites operated by Rademaker. Reconstruction efforts being disorganized once again by worker unstress caught the ire of local government. Though Seattle's rail line was properly functional, by the point of February, many buildings were still untouched or partially rebuilt. Directed by Mayor Harrison and Chief of Police Dickson, law enforcement would be deployed to enforce reconstruction under impartial working conditions, albeit without the coordination of union organizers.

This motion by the Seattle Police Department near-immediately angered Dutch managers, Rademaker in particular. Despite police presence, tensions were still great. Physical violence decreased, but verbal altercations often had to be stopped with police intervention. The majority of German and English heritage, police patrols of reconstruction sites would begin to tilt into the favor of non-Dutch/Chinese laborers; alienating the Dutch minority within the police department. By 22 February, the simmering ethnic tension had made its infection into the police department apparent. Violence would begin to again flare up between laborers, and would reach a boiling point. Ironically, despite being the most significant and violent of worker encounters, it's starting point is vague and disputed. Though historical documentation from the time attributed it to a group of Chinese workers assaulting two white officers for mocking them, more contemporary works contribute the start of violence to officers who had accidentally discharged a weapon while harassing a group of laborers of likely Chinese origin; causing a mass hysteria among all the workers. No matter the story, violence quickly ensued after the firing of gunshots and the quick spread of the news roused tensions on other worksites into full-scale violence. Such brutality would end up including that of police-on-police violence on the lines of the already established ethnic and social strata. With the exception of one work site which subdued its violence within an hour, the rest would encroach their violence into civilian centers; businesses, homes, and other civilian services became additional sites of battle. Thomas York, one of the anti-Dutch rioters, would utilize an improvised incendiary device with liquor to partially destroy a Chinese home. After his arrest, the device would be dubbed the 'York Spirit' and would become iconic to anti-Dutch and Chinese symbolism in addition to its greater use in protest and warfare after its national popularization. Overall, violence would last until late at night, only stopping due to the intervention of the Okanagan Army National Guard and general fatigue. The riot itself would result in the deaths of 69 people, and the burning and vandalism cost approximately $20,000 ($423,000 in 2021) in property damage. In the aftermath, Chief Dickson would resign and the neighborhood limits of Makersville would be placed under direct military authority (martial law). The riots and following martial law would also see the quickened expansion of Seattle's court system and the installation of both a naval base on the shores of Elliot Bay and the installation of an army base parallel to Olympus Point across Lake Haahchu. Seattle's economy deeply waned after the combined events of the fire and riots. Robert Evans would be apprehended by army infantry and William Rademaker would abandon efforts in reconstruction; his son, Donald inheriting the buckling company.

The resignation of Chief Dickson continued with the resignation of the majority of the police department's Dutch officers, who perceived the police department as a destitute and ethnically biased institution. Many of these Dutchmen would begin to form militias with Dutch and Chinese laborers. Organizational efforts by Donald Rademaker led to the militias becoming unified under one movement; the Amber Guard, named so after the Dutch House of Orange-Nassau and the characterization of the yellow skin of the Chinese; Amber. The Amber Guard in it's inception was essentially only security details for homes and worksites, but the events of the later Seattle riot of 1883 would transform them into a pro-active political bloc. The original incarnation of the Amber Guard was in continuous non-violent conflict with the U.S army and local law enforcement and was one of the main pillars that upheld Dutch power in the economic sector. The riots are also considered the primary reason for Georg Harrison's only narrow victory in the gubernational election of 1880.

Seattle Nativist Riot of 1882

The late 1870's and early 1800's saw a drastic increase in Seattle's immigrant population. The majority of Seattle's immigrant population was primarily composed of Irish, Italian and German Catholics, which greatly contrasted with the formerly predominant Protestant population. A Nativist political movement akin to that of the Know-Nothings began to grow in prominence within Seattle's Republican hegemony. Seattle's new religious divide was now as topical a political issue as the poor race relations which caused the city to be placed under martial law six years before.

Populist eloquence and local newspapers were the main fuel for growing anti-Catholic sentiment. By 1882, 6 of the 12 seats on the city council were occupied by members of the Nativist movement, and the mayoral election of the same year which concluded with the victory of avid Nativist Cornelius Knox, reported cases of voter intimidation in Catholic majority localities. Appealing to populism allowed city legislation such as the compulsory reading of the Protestant Bible and introduction of literature such as Martin Luther's On the Bondage of the Will into the school curriculum. Knox's mayorship is directly credited with the devolution of anti-Catholicism into general anti-Irish and anti-Italian ideology and protests against his election and growing Nativist power would be quickly suppressed by law enforcement. Knox sponsored an investigation committee into a Catholic convent on the basis of sexual immorality and political bribery. Portrayed as a moral crusade, Knox's actions against the Catholic community sparked outrage from both them and traditional Republicans. Knox's investigation committee indicted a priest, Cesarino Milani, on using convent funding to pay for numerous prostitutes, and though no indictment came around for the latter, insisted that numerous members of the convent utilized funding to bribe politicians towards blocking the passing of pro-Protestant laws. The soundness of the committee's process was called into question by political opponents and the Catholic community (particularly Italians, of which the targeted convent originated from). In spite of that, Milani was incarcerated in wait for a trial. After newspapers broke the story of Milani's confinement, protests soon occurred outside of Milani's jailhouse against his confinement. Counter-protestors quickly gathered across the street from the anti-Nativists. The two opposing factions stood outside the jailhouse for hours under the supervision of police officers, but a verbal confrontation between the two protest groups would devolve into violence. Though attempting to stamp out violence on both sides, the preponderance of historical documentation affirms that police disproportionately attacked anti-Nativists. Police forced the infighting mob away from the jailhouse after a flame arose on the buildings exterior from the use of a York spirit. Total violence would be subdued by law enforcement, and after the riot, only 1 man had died, but many more were injured. Several of the protestors (the vast majority anti-Nativists) were arrested and tried for numerous crimes ranging from harassment, assault, and rioting. Protests against the numerous arrests of anti-Nativists would be formed but would be quickly dispersed by police officers. The events of the riot would heavily damage Knox's popularity and the following months would see a mass exodus of Italians, Irish, and to a lesser extent, German Catholics, to New York Alki, forming the basis of the Catholic Dollar neighborhood, and less so left north to New Plymouth.

Seattle Chinese Riot of 1883

The Seattle riot took place on the 17 and 18 of February, 1883, primarily in the neighborhoods of Federal Yard, Leschi, and Capitol Hill. There had always been animosity towards Seattle's Chinese community, but the Nativist fervor of year prior had opened a conversation among white citizenry to expel Chinese residents had existed since their settling of the neighborhoods after the Great Fire. Debate ranged from forcing them back into Makersville after reconstruction, but after the tumultuous 1876 riots, the ending of martial law by 1878, the growing economic slump of the decade, and the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, talks radicalized even more; with the proposal of forced deportation back to China being considered legitimate action to take. Many members of the community opposed outright deportation and held small counter-gatherings, but numerous meetings about organizing both expulsion and deportation persisted, with the penultimate gathering taking place at Paris Theater. The morning of February 17, following the Paris Theater meeting, groups of armed men would enter the homes of Chinese residents under the false pretenses of investigating city health regulations and potentially treasonous political activity. Afterwards, the men would begin to evict residents out of their homes and would begin the expulsion process via steamship and train. The Seattle Home Guard and Amber Guard protected the Chinese by forcing away the mob of men. The mob put up a defiant resistance, many of the men themselves being either trained militiamen, veterans, or workers who participated in numerous labor strikes. By the afternoon, the combined efforts of the Home Guard and allied militia were unable to subdue the mob; however, many of the Chinese residents themselves were able to flee the brutality. As efforts to control unrest drew out, worry about another enforcement of martial law began to set in. Governor Harrison organized his own militia, himself as leader, to intervene in the violence. By the evening of the same day, the Seattle Home Guard was able to overwhelm much rebellion, and by the end of the riot, 19 had died (Harrison himself contributing to 2 deaths), with many more wounded. The efforts of Harrison's militia in actuality did little to affect the outcome of the riot but it did cement his legacy as a radical proponent of racial equality, and would see the establishment of the Governor's Militia: a radical paramilitary group which would see its operations last up until the early 21st century. In total, only 65 Chinese left Seattle by ship, but in spite of its quick end, President Grover Cleveland still ordered the city of Seattle to be put under martial law.

The events of the riot and introduction of martial law cascaded the vast majority of the remaining Catholic population in relocating to New York Alki. The few who remained were generally German Catholics who remained privately religious or converted to Protestantism. By the end of February, Knox's popularity had tanked to the point of having the lowest approval rating of any mayor in Seattle's history. Though pressured to resign early, he'd refuse to leave office until his loss in the 1884 election to John Leary.

Civil Reform

The populism of Knox's politics extended to the growth of Seattle's civic infrastructure and design. Seattle's streetcar lines were expanded northward towards New Plymouth, the cities first public transit line between each other, and the second rail line established after the Transnational Columbian Railway. The extension of the streetcar line was built in respect to Knox's planned regrading project, in which he entrusted visionary city engineer Bernard H. Robinson to successfully implement. Leveling Seattle's steep hills was a long process, but it was invigorated by the support of numerous companies such as Maker Construction Associated and Seattle's still-growing working population. Despite being voted out of office in 1884, succeeding mayor John Leary continued Knox's current and planned civic projects. The majority of regrade efforts were centered from Pioneer Square to Federal Yard, but later projects would venture towards the steep hills of the Lake Washington coast. Spoils from the regrade projects were used to expand Seattle's waterfront farther outwards into Elliot Bay.

As New York Alki began to make their prospects of establishing their own port, Leary refocused civil efforts into building the Lake Haahchu Ship Canal, which created two cuts through Montlake and Whitewood, four bascule bridges, and the Lincoln-Harrison Government Locks. The effects of the project included the dropping of Lake Washington's sea level; transforming the then Hannibal Island into its current state as a peninsula, in addition to the complete drying of the Black River.

The lack of zoning legislation in Seattle meant that land use, ethnic groups, and economic class faced shuffling and mixture. Knowledgeable of the risks associated with forced mixture of Seattle's economic classes and ethnicities, nonetheless stacking upon other social ills such as the city's rapidly increasing congestion and unstable property values, Mayor Leary in cooperation with the city council and municipal reformers enacted a citywide zoning code; the first citywide zoning ordinance in the United States. The most important impact of the resolution was the de facto segregation of the city's ethnicities. While Germans and the Dutch maintained their general composition in Capitol Hill and Makersville respectively, Chinese residents and citizens were shuffled into Federal Yard and along Hanseatic Boulevard.

Leary's urban renewal projects, advised by Adelheid Harrison, transformed many empty spaces in Seattle into parks, greenery, and other forms of civilian recreation. Living among Seattle's booming urban sprawl, the citys plenty of green spaces, including the revival of vegetation planted along Hanseatic Boulevard and the construction of the Swiss Memorial Garden would garner attraction to Seattle as not just a pioneer city but as a "green city".

Klondike Gold Rush

Seattle would face another period of economic boom after the discovery of gold in the Klondike region of Canada. Suffering economic woes after the Panic of 1893, and to a lesser extent, the Panic of 1896, a campaign organized by Donald Rademaker and Erastus Brainerd, publicized the described "ton of gold" which had arrived to Seattle's Sommerfeld Wharf on the steamship Pittsburgh. This campaign both essentially started the gold rush and designated Seattle as the central supply center and jumping off point for transportation between itself, Alaska, and the Yukon gold deposits for hopeful pioneers. The gold rush coincided with increased German immigration to Seattle. Capitol Hill, which held the largest concentration of Germans in the city, would come to be known as "the German Rome". The immigrants would begin to dominate numerous work sectors and promulgate the mass majority of Seattle's brewery scene, including many companies such as Richter, Steinwasser, and Heben.

The introduction of these primarily working-class immigrants would dominate the city's infant socialist political scene. Seattle would also become an immigration hub for many Swedes, Russians, Japanese, Filipinos, and Indian Sikhs.

Seattle's rapid growth in population began to push the city's limits to encompass New Plymouth and along the Duwamish River, in which New York Alki resided on the other side. New Plymouth would be annexed by the city of Seattle in 1899.

Beginning of the 20th century

Renewed Competition with Alki

Having planned it's construction since the 1890's, by 1901, Alki (which had changed it's name from New York Alki in 1899) had constructed its very first point. This new port signified the beginning of the end of Seattle's monopoly over sea trade in the Puget Sound. Building an image out of itself as a premier trading site, Alki would begin the large scale construction of numerous wharves lining its northern and western beaches. By 1904, 24 additional wharves were built and the commercial inflow to Seattle had begun to diverge into Alki. By 1909, Alki had overtaken approximately 20% of Seattle's maritime trade and Seattle's economy would see standstill. As of 1912, Seattle's heavy industry would also begin to see decline as job opportunity migrated to Alki.

General Strike of 1918 & the Republican split

After U.S Congress declared war on the German Empire on the 6th of April, the majority of heavy industry across both Alki and Seattle, particularly within the naval sector, began to slash their already low worker's wages in anticipation of military mobilization. This drastic action emboldened the presence of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) among the twin cities' labor base as well as deeply popularized the anti-war movement in the region. By the fall of 1916, means of arbitration and negotiation by the American Federation of Labor (AFL) had succeeded in only a few corners of Seattle's industry but as for the majority, continuously met deadlock and failure. As faith in the AFL deteriorated, multiple unions would begin to form trade councils, most notable of them being the Alki-Seattle Metal Trades Council; a delegation of twenty-six craft unions in the cities shipbuilding sector. After a week long strike organized by the councils, 1/3 of metal tradesmen employers enacted uniform wage scales in appeasement of the strikers. Another strike would occur however when yard owners refused wage increases for workers as a whole in turn for pay increases of only skilled workers. During the time of the strikes, Jamison Linden, president of the trades council, among other German-descended strikers, were arrested under allegations of endorsing the German war effort, and Linden specifically for destroying his federal registration card in front of kettling policemen. The arrest of the trades council's primary leadership disorganized the strike effort, leading it two days over its scheduled end and further deteriorating trust between the yard owners, council, and government. progressive Republican support for the labor movement would come to a stand still, as the movement became increasingly unpopular out of the working class voter base.

Any form of negotiation further broke down after Charles Piez, vice president of the Emergency Fleet Corporation (EFC), sent a telegram to yard owners threatening to withdraw naval contracts in the case of any further wage increases. The telegram, originally intended for the Seattle & Alki Metal Trades Association, a delegation of most of the cities yard owners, was accidentally sent to the Alki-Seattle Metal Trades Council. Already agitated by the renaming of Hanseatic Boulevard to Washington Way as part of an overwhelming wave of anti-German sentiment, workers responded with anger towards the federal government. Vandalism against government buildings and the assault of anti-union Congressman Bernard Ross of Alki's 1st district would mark the all time high of anti-federal attitudes; the labor force considering them on the side of corporate interests. Many shipbuilders began to consider relocating to numerous other cities along the west coast as operations became further delayed.

After consultation with the Pierce County Labor Council for a general strike of all Seattle and Alki based workers. Support among unions were completely unanimous. Assisted by the IWW, the strike would begin on the 27th of February at 9:35 am. The first day of the strike was accompanied by protests throughout both cities, which were often joined by veterans, disgruntled German-Americans, socialist agitators, and a collection of women's suffragists.

During the strike, the vacuum of power left by the systemic arrest of German-American labor leaders allowed the introduction of more radical and overtly socialist elements to positions of power. As the strike carried on, the Japanese-American community would grow into prominence for their organization alongside the strike committee over Seattle's new food distribution system. Difficulty of maintaining strike facilities and the pressure from increased federal troop presence and international union officers alike would push the strike to come to an end on the 6th of March.

The effect of the strikes would linger throughout the landscape of Seattle and Alki, especially within the landscape of it's Republican party. Having had been reabsorbed into the greater Republican party after Theodore Roosevelt's loss in the 1912 election, the strike rekindled both cities progressive movements. Running up to the 1920 mayoral, gubernational, and senatorial elections, labor practices, the strikes themselves, and Seattle's continuously declining economy were hotly contested debates. By November of 1918, the general lines of divide which would define the 1920 electoral cycle would be shown. Industrial centers and the intercity would delineate themselves as strongholds for the progressive movement while politicians adhering more closer to mainstream and explicitly anti-union ideology would define New Plymouth as well as the outer limits of both cities.