Seattle Public Library Destroyed by Fire (on January 1, 1901)

Or was it January 2nd?

Photo source:  DorpatSherrardLomont

The 40-room house was constructed in 1883 for Henry and Sarah Yesler, a Seattle industrialist and his wife.  Sarah died in 1887 and Henry five years later, but it wasn't until 1899, after Henry's second, much younger wife died, that the house was turned over to the library.  Supposedly, Henry's will, which could not be found after his death, provided that the house was to be given to Seattle for use as a city hall.

In 1899, Andrew Carnegie turned down Seattle's request to fund a library.  He dismissively referred to the city as a "hot air boom town".  But four days after the fire, he agreed to contribution $200,000 to construct a "fire-proof" library.  As a result, some Seattle residents considered arson as the cause of the 1901 fire.  According to the DorpatSherrardLomont account, Librarian Charles Wesley Smith, who worked on an inventory at the library late into the evening on December 31st, became a likely suspect.   A HistoryLink.org account of the fire notes that "[T]he good fortune resulting seems to cast suspicion on certain loyal advocates of the library," although no names are mentioned.

And just to add a further element of confusion, the Seattle Public Library history webpage claims the fire took place on January 2, 1901.

Yes, indeed.  The first decade of the 20th century was a boom time for Seattle, as it nearly tripled in population.