Naming Rights: Georgetown

This is the latest in a series of posts examining the naming origins of our Seattle neighborhoods. Last week we went up to Queen Anne, but today it's south to Georgetown, once an independent city, now a neighborhood whose fates and fortunes have long been shaped by beer.

When it was first settled, the area was known as the Duwamish District. A developer named Julius Horton later platted the area and bestowed the name of Georgetown in 1890, according to David Wilma's essay on HistoryLink.org. He named the new community Georgetown after his son; it has nothing to do with the well-known neighborhood in the other Washington.

When the railroad arrived in the 1870s, all major rail routes from the south ran through Georgetown, cementing its role as an industrial center. The nearby brewing complex, later becoming the world's sixth-largest brewery and the home of Rainier Beer, also opened during those years and quickly became a major employer.

By 1903, according to Wilma, Georgetown had seven saloons, five grocery stores, and just four churches. And Seattle's city limit was encroaching on the fun:

Neighborhoods around Georgetown were voting to be annexed by Seattle. But state law prohibited the sale and manufacture of intoxicating liquors within one mile of any city. If Seattle's boundaries drew too near, Georgetown would go dry and lose its saloons, not to mention its largest employer, the brewery.

Georgetown finally incorporated as its own city in 1904 to ":safeguard the interests of its brewery" and ward off the threats of being a dry unincorporated area due to its proximity to Seattle.

The city hall building is on the National Register of Historic Places. But the real power was over at the brewery, according to Peter 's history of Rainier Beer on HistoryLink:

It was a classic “company town” in which the brewery's superintendent, John Mueller, also served as both mayor and fire chief -- an arrangement that safely managed civic affairs to align with the brewery's needs.

It also became a destination for Seattle residents looking for a boozy night out, especially later when the Emerald City started cracking down on its saloon licenses and red light district.

Just nine months after the fancy city hall was completed, Georgetown residents voted to be annexed by Seattle, perhaps frustrated with their city's rowdy reputation in the years when Prohibition fever was taking root in the nation.

The brewing operations headed to San Francisco in 1916, when Washington went dry, several years before national prohibition. Today, thanks to places like Georgetown Brewing, Full Throttle Bottles and 9 LB Hammer, the beer tradition remains even though the giant brewing works have long since shuttered.