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Overview

This laundry was in operation in 1894. A widow, Amanda M. Guthrie, worked as the forewoman at the Cascade Steam Laundry in 1894. (SeeSeattle, Washington, City Directory, 1894, p. 386.)

Building History

In 1888, H.E. Stumer owned the Cascade Laundry which had three offices, one in Fremont, another branch at 1204 Front Street (later renamed 1st Avenue), and the main office at 202 Main. An advertisement for Stumer's laundry placed in the Seattle City Directory, 1888-1889, (p. 29), proudly carried the top line (even above the name of the laundry itself), "White Labor Only!" This pronouncement reflected the prevailing anti-Chinese sentiment that reached a head in Seattle on 02/07/1886, when vigilantes rounded up 196 Chinese citizens forcibly put them aboard the S.S. Queen bound for San Francisco. One hundred more Chinese citizens were also detained for eviction aboard the S.S. George W. Elder on 02/14/1886. Law-enforcement authorities, badly outnumbered, were forced to defend themselves against the mob, at one point firing on them, killing one and wounding several. On 02/09/1886. President Grover Cleveland dispatched 300 military troops to restore order, and this force remained in the city until summer 1886. In the end, this mob removed about 300 Chinese-Americans from the city, leaving approximately 65, most of whom left as they shortly thereafter given this racial hostility. (See Phil Dougherty, Historylink.org, “Mobs forcibly expel most of Seattle’s Chinese residents beginning on February 7, 1886,” published 11/17/2013, accessed 08/21/2020.)

This building was in use before 1900, when the Cascade Laundry Company built a second, four-story facility.

PCAD id: 15373