View XML QR Code

Seattle Water Department Historical Files, 1889-1964

Overview of the Collection

Creator
Seattle (Wash.). Water Dept.
Title
Seattle Water Department Historical Files
Dates
1889-1964 (inclusive)
Quantity
4.6 cubic feet, (12 boxes)
Collection Number
8200-10
Summary
Public documents and research notes that were gathered in the process of writing a history of the Seattle Water Department.
Repository
Seattle Municipal Archives
Seattle Municipal Archives
Office of the City Clerk
City of Seattle
PO Box 94728
98124-4728
Seattle, WA
Telephone: 2062337807
Fax: 2063869025
archives@seattle.gov
Access Restrictions

Records are open to the public.

Languages
English
Return to Top

Historical Note

From 1854 until 1890, Seattle's water was provided by wells, springs and private water companies. A public waterworks was created by City Charter Amendment in 1875. However, Seattle was served primarily by small private water companies for the next decade and a half. In 1888, prompted by a tenfold population increase during the previous decade, Seattle's mayor and city council called for an election to decide if the city should own and operate its own water system.

Shortly before the election, the "Great Seattle Fire" of June 6, 1889, destroyed the entire 64-acre business district. A major contributor to the widespread destruction was the lack of water available from the patchwork of private water suppliers. The vote on establishing a municipally-owned water system was approved by a resounding 1,875 to 51 margin.

In 1890, a U.S. Supreme Court decision allowed municipalities to issue bonds secured by future revenues. Shortly thereafter, Seattle issued $845,000 in bonds and purchased two private water companies -- the Spring Hill Water Company and the Union Water Company -- both of which pumped water from Lake Union and Lake Washington. In 1895, Seattle residents again voted to approve revenue bonds, this time to construct the Cedar River water system. Water first flowed from the Cedar River into Seattle's system on January 10, 1901. Water was diverted by a dam at Landsburg, and then was channeled into a newly-completed 28.57 mile pipeline. This pipeline carried water to the Volunteer Park and Lincoln reservoirs on Capitol Hill in Seattle, which were also built at the time. This new system had a capacity of 23.5 million gallons per day.

The system was administered by the Superintendent of Water under the auspices of the Board of Public Works. In 1905 the Department of Lighting and Water Works was created. Five years later, the Water Department became a separate entity. In 1909, a second pipeline was added, providing an additional 45 million gallon per day capacity to meet the water needs of a fast-growing Seattle. The next water supply source was not added until 1964, when the South Fork of the Tolt River began supplying north Seattle and the Eastside. In 1987, the first ground water source was added to the system when two wells in the Highline Well Field began operation. A third well was added in 1990.

In 1997 the Water Department was consolidated with the utilities of the Engineering Department to form Seattle Public Utilities.

Return to Top

Content Description

The Water Department Historical Files, an artificial collection of public documents that were gathered in the process of writing an agency history, contains two types of records. The first type is comprised of the records that Mary McWilliams compiled from several sources within the department. These include correspondence, reports, leases, ordinances, specifications, articles and speeches, contracts, financial records, and other records relating to the history of the Water Department and the City's water system. The second type consists of McWilliams' research notes and a typescript of her book manuscript.

The departmental records that McWilliams pulled together are a valuable compilation of materials that cannot be found elsewhere. Examples are Superintendent Luther B. Youngs' correspondence (1906-1923); various reports on the water system and water-related issues by Benezette Williams, Reginald H. Thomson, and Virgil Bogue; forest management correspondence and reports by the department's forester, Allen E. Thompson; health and sanitation records related to the watershed; and documents providing information on logging and railroads in the watershed. The records also provide a glimpse at the organizational structure of the department, municipal utility finances, and other detailed minutiae including equipment inventories and civil service issues.

A small body of material was added to the collection after McWilliams finished the book. Presumably this was done with the idea that the collection would serve as a living body of records that would serve a reference function for the department.

McWilliams' research notes include drafts of topical sections, partial transcriptions of interviews, transcribed copies of records that she was not allowed to compile into this collection, and various other notes. Examples include 13 pages she transcribed from the 1916 Joint Report of the City Engineer and Superintendent of Water Works, and a 1934 report by R.H. Thomson on the possibility of incorporating the Tolt River watershed into the City's water system. In using these notes, researchers should be aware the dates given to the folders are the dates McWilliams compiled the notes. The dates of issues and events covered by the notes are often found in the folder titles.

Return to Top

Other Descriptive Information

In 1914, assistant superintendent John Lamb produced a brief departmental history titled Seattle Municipal Water Plant. In 1947, superintendent Chester Morse assigned G.B. Schunke the task of updating Lamb's work. Schunke in turn assigned the job to David Wallborn. However, Wallborn died within five months and the project was set aside until March 1949, when an ordinance was passed appropriating funds to compile the history.

Morse again assigned the writing to Schunke; unfortunately he died in May. Morse then requested that Mary McWilliams, a stenographer in the department for over three decades, postpone retirement in order to compile data and information so he could put together a chronicle. However, Morse himself died in September 1949, and the responsibility for writing the history was given to McWilliams.

McWilliams gathered historical documents, especially related to the Cedar River Watershed and the pipelines, and corresponded with or interviewed former department employees and City officials. Her work was published by the City in 1955 under the title Seattle Water Department History, 1854-1954: Operational Data and Memoranda.

Return to Top

Use of the Collection

Preferred Citation

[Item and date], Seattle Water Department Historical Files, Record Series 8200-10. Box [number], Folder [number]. Seattle Municipal Archives.

Return to Top

Administrative Information

Arrangement

The collection is arranged into the following categories:

  • Administration
  • Finance
  • Forest Management
  • Lighting
  • Property Acquisition
  • Railroads
  • Storage and Distribution
  • Timber
  • Water Quality
  • Water Systems
  • Mary McWilliams Research Notes
Return to Top

Detailed Description of the Collection

The following section contains a detailed listing of the materials in the collection.

Finding aid prepared by Scott Cline
2007

CC Attribution
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

About Creative Commons Licenses in Archives West