In the 1930s, the population of Seattle was around 350,000 and the economy of the city was largely dependent on harvesting its trees and fish and Eastern Washington wheat and shipping them off to distant places.
Like most cities, Seattle was hit hard by the stock-market crash in 1929. By late 1931, wages had fallen 35 percent and as many as 20,000 were out of work. Seattle issued 2,538 permits for housing construction in 1930, but only 361 in 1932 Retail sales were off by 17 percent, construction down by 70 percent. The official unemployment rate was 7 percent. Shipping and shipbuilding ground to a halt. Forty Northwest lumber mills closed. Hundreds of men lived in a shantytown known as “Hooverville,” a few blocks south of Pioneer Square, where the unemployed picked their own mayor, enforced their own rules, and tweaked the establishment.
Things began to change as the government launched several developments and special aid programs across the country in the late-1930s. Here below are some stunning historical photos that show what Seattle looked like in the 1930s.
#1 8th and Olive, Seattle, 1932
#2 General View of Seattle, circa 1930.
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This is a photo taken of tiny houses 1930. Not a lot has change.
