In November 1888 two young men, employees of the Post-Intelligencer newspaper in Seattle, quit their jobs and went into real estate. They didn’t have any formal training in such work but their knowledge of the city and their belief in its potential led them to launch out into the buying and selling of land. Just six months later, Seattle’s Great Fire of June 6, 1889, caused an explosion in the value of real estate and the potential for expanding and developing new areas of the city for industry and for housing. Samuel Crawford and Charles T. Conover were on their way, and became one of the best-known and trusted names in real estate and development in Seattle.
Real estate office of Samuel Crawford (seated at left) and Charles T. Conover (standing, center) in 1890. Walter Hamley, age 12 (seated, at center) worked as a messenger. Photo courtesy of University of Washington Special Collections, PH Coll 503.8.
The remarkable story of Crawford & Conover had parallels forty-seven years later in 1935, when Albert Balch and Ralph Jones left radio work to go into real estate. Like Crawford & Conover in the 1880’s, in the 1930’s Balch and Jones were bold and optimistic that they could overcome a “down” economic climate. Incredibly, when Balch and Jones first started out, the real estate firm of Crawford & Conover was still operating. Samuel Crawford died in 1916 and Charles T. Conover began the process of retiring from business at age 74 in 1936. Conover lived to be a very old man, dying in 1961 just two days before his 99th birthday. Albert Balch was one of the honorary pallbearers at the funeral of C.T. Conover.
