On November 25, 1892, Hans J. Claussen (1861-1937), Charles E. Crane (ca. 1853-1918), and George E. Sackett (ca. 1843-1921), owners of the Seattle Automatic Refrigeration Company, incorporate the Diam...
The opening of a post office is an important marker of the beginning of a community. On November 30, 1892, Vashon Island's Aquarium Post Office opens. Henry P. Fish serves as the first postmaster. Aqu...
On December 7, 1892, the Seventh Day Adventist Church opens Walla Walla College in College Place. In freezing temperature and in a building that is not quite finished, members of the college and the C...
In 1893, Dr. Frank Chappell (1846-1927) arrives in Granite Falls and sets up the first medical practice. A smallpox epidemic in Snohomish County logging camps exposes a pressing need for doctors. He ...
In 1893, Mary Thompson, owner of Minnehaha Saloon and one of Seattle's wealthiest black citizens, dies.
On January 6, 1893, amid cheers, shouts, and gunshots, workers drive the last spike into the Great Northern Railway track that opens transcontinental travel to Seattle. They lay the last rails at Madi...
On January 7, 1893, Wenatchee, located in Kittitas County (in 1899 changed to Chelan County), incorporates as a fourth-class city. The town has a population of 500 and incorporates after a vote of 10...
The opening of a post office is an important marker of the beginning of a community. On January 13, 1893, Preston Post Office opens. John F. Hudson serves as the first postmaster. Preston is located 2...
In February 1893, Thomas S. Lippy, physical education director at the Young Men's Christian Association in Seattle, hangs two half-bushel baskets in the YMCA gym and begins teaching the rudiments of a...
On February 3, 1893, heavy snow and extreme cold grips Western Washington. In Seattle, the temperature at Woodland Park stands at five degrees below zero and the ice on Green Lake is six inches thick.
On February 5, 1893, residents of South Bend seize the records and seals of Pacific County and transfer the county seat to South Bend, as dictated by voters in the previous November's election. Oyster...
On February 21, 1893, an Act of the Washington State Legislature changes the name of Slaughter in south King County to Auburn. Originally intended to remember Lt. William A. Slaughter (d. 1855), who w...
On February 24, 1893, Washington Governor John McGraw (1850-1910) approves the charter for the state's third public teacher-training school, the New Whatcom Normal School. Over the years, the school w...
On February 24, 1893, the Monte Cristo Mining Company files a plat in Cleveland, Ohio, for the town of Monte Cristo, located in Snohomish County, Washington. The corporation, located on its mining c...
On February 28, 1893, the first freight train arrives in Seattle from the East. The train steams in on the Great Northern Railway's newly completed transcontinental tracks.
On March 1, 1893, the Port Townsend Post Office, Court and Customs House opens. The building, located at 1322 Washington Street, occupies a prominent location on the bluff overlooking Port Townsend an...
On March 7, 1893, Washington state enacts the nation's first law to ban the sale of cigarettes to anyone, adult or child. The law makes it unlawful for any person to buy, sell, give away, or manufactu...
On April 4, 1893, Seattle Seminary opens its doors to 34 elementary school students. The Oregon and Washington Conference of the Free Methodist Church has organized the school to train and educate mis...
On April 15, 1893, work commences on the Old Lowden Ditch, one of the early irrigation projects in the Walla Walla Valley. This project takes water out of the Walla Walla River several miles upstream ...
In 1893, Tacoma's Old City Hall is constructed at S 7th Street and Pacific Avenue. The Italian Renaissance style building, designed by E. A. Hatherton of San Francisco, features pressed brickwork, ter...
On May 4, 1893, Everett is officially incorporated. In an election held in late April 1893, voters chose to incorporate and to elect Democrat Thomas Dwyer as the city's first mayor.
On May 5, 1893, the New York stock market tumbles, setting off a panic that sweeps across the United States and crashes onto the Pacific Northwest. King County and the Puget Sound region plunge into a...
On May 9, 1893, the New Whatcom City Council holds its first meeting in the town's grand new City Hall. Town boosters hope that the new building will be "a beacon to all vessels coming into our harbo...
On June 18, 1893, the first Great Northern Railway passenger train leaves Seattle for St. Paul, Minnesota. The departure marks the beginning of direct transcontinental rail travel from Seattle, fulfil...