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Overview

This wharf was erected in 1877 to enable coal mined in Newcastle, WA, and brought by railcar to Seattle's waterfront, to be loaded onto ships, many of which were destined for the Pacific Coast's main metropolis, San Francisco. Many wharves were built in the last quarter of the 19th century to service visiting steamships. Two iterations of the King Street Wharf existed between 1877-1903. Early photos of the King Steet Wharf c. 1880 show a small wooden structure; by 1898, a towering wood wharf, built to enable rail cars to load coal for transport aboard steamships, stood at the foot of King Street.

Building History

James M. Colman (1832-1906), a Scottish-born lumberman, migrated to the US in 1854, settling first in WI, before traveling to Seattle in 1861 to set up lumber operations in the Pacific Northwest. By the mid-1870s, Colman turned his attention to railroads and shipping, and became head of the Seattle and Walla Walla Railroad, a venture funded by Seattle investors to create a trans-Cascade route to rival the Northern Pacific Railway's proposed transcontinental railroad terminating in Tacoma. In 1877, another coal-hauling enterprise, the Seattle Coal & Transportation Company, had its waterfront facilities--a coal bunker and wharf at the foot of Pike Street--fall into Elliott Bay, their pilings undermined by the teredo navalis, otherwise known as shipworms.

To provide coal transport to waiting ships, Colman and the Seattle and Walla Walla Railroad built the King Street Wharf, stepping in for the disabled Seattle Coal and Transportation Company.On 02/05/1878, the Seattle and Walla Walla Railroad completed a line linking the coal fields of Newcastle, WA, with Seattle. For some of the coal, the end of the line was this huge Seattle wharf jutting west into Elliott Bay. AsJohn Caldbickhas written for HistoryLink.org: "After the collapse of the Seattle Coal facility, Colman pushed the tracks another 12 miles to the mines of Newcastle and began transporting that company's product under contract. A new wharf and related facilities were built on the waterfront at the foot of King Street to receive, store, and deliver the coal. The railroad went no farther than Newcastle, but was a financial success." (See John Caldbick, HistoryLink.org Essay #10920, "Oregon Improvement Company completes purchase of Seattle & Walla Walla Railroad Company and Seattle Coal & Transportation Company on November 26, 1880," accessed 03/24/2016.) Colman's new railroad-wharf connection operated for about three years, when Henry Villard (1835-1900), the New York railroad tycoon, and his newly-formed Oregon Improvement Company (OIC) purchased the assets of the Seattle and Walla Walla Railroad and the competing Seattle Coal and Transportation Company on 11/26/1880.

Seattle city government enticed Villard to build a rail line from Tacoma to Seattle by giving the OIC a development right-of-way for "... a mile-long, 30-foot-wide strip of land running north along the waterfront from King Street to Clay Street just south of Broad Street." This gave the OIC some of the most important real estate in the city for transporting and storing goods loaded and unloaded at the port of Seattle. The only catch was that Villard had to build this spur line to Seattle withing two years. His company did produce a makeshift rail link between the two cities by 1883, and the city of Seattle gave Villard a hero's welcome when he appeared there on 09/14/1883.

The OIC invested heavily in port infrastructure between 1881 and 1883. Caldbick wrote: "In early 1881, the OIC expanded and improved the existing King Street Coal Wharf, constructing a new trestle that ran in a graceful curve to shore. Work also began on two new docks and large warehouses that lay side by side between the King Street Coal Wharf and Yesler's Wharf, which was some 900 feet long and resembled a small and slightly ramshackle village. The two new docks would be known as the City Dock, lying between Washington and Main streets, and the Ocean Dock, just to the north between Main and Jackson."

PCAD id: 20069