
Seattle police twice burned the early Hooverville, but each time residents rebuilt. It is just west of Qwest Field and the Alaska Viaduct. Today the nine acre site is used to unload container ships. This was Port of Seattle property that had been occupied by Skinner and Eddy shipyard during World War I.

What became the city's main Hooverville started as a group of little huts on land next to Elliott Bay south of "skid road," as the Pioneer Square area was then called. Seattle's Housing PoliticsĬlick to see google map of shack towns in Seattle area and more photos and descriptions.In Seattle shacks appeared in many locations in 19, but authorities usually destroyed them after neighbors complained. Some cities allowed squatter encampments for a time, others did not.

Some squatted, either defying eviction and staying where they were, or finding shelter in one of the increasing number of vacant buildings.Īnd hundreds of thousands-no one knows how many-took to the streets, finding what shelter they could, under bridges, in culverts, or on vacant public land where they built crude shacks.

Unit densities soared in the early 1930s. By 1932 millions of Americans were living outside the normal rent-paying housing market. Homeowners lost their property when they could not pay mortgages or pay taxes. Homelessness followed quickly from joblessness once the economy began to crumble in the early 1930s.

It stood for ten years, 1931 to 1941.Ĭovering nine acres of public land, it housed a population of up to 1,200, claimed its own community government including an unofficial mayor, and enjoyed the protection of leftwing groups and sympathetic public officials Seattle's main Hooverville was one of the largest, longest-lasting, and best documented in the nation. "Hooverville" was a deliberately politicized label, emphasizing that President Herbert Hoover and the Republican Party were to be held responsible for the economic crisis and its miseries. There were dozens in the state of Washington, hundreds throughout the country, each testifying to the housing crisis that accompanied the employment crisis of the early 1930s. "Hooverville" became a common term for shacktowns and homeless encampments during the Great Depression. Click here to see more photographs of Hoovervilles and homeless encampments in Seattle and Tacoma.
