File:John Leary home, 2nd and Madison, Seattle, circa 1890 (MOHAI 9516).jpg

John Leary (1837-1905) came to Seattle in 1869 and was involved with virtually every major civic and commercial undertaking in Seattle in the 1870s and 1880s. He was the first president of the West Coast Improvement Company (WCIC), which shaped Ballard into the "Shingle Capitol of the World" (Leary Way still bears his name). Leary served three terms as a member of the Seattle city council (in 1873, 1875, and 1876), and one term as mayor in 1884. After his first wife died, John married Eliza P. Ferry (1951-1935), a daughter of Elisha P. Ferry, the first governor of the State of Washington. This image shows the Leary home on the corner of Second Avenue and Madison Street. Built by Dr. Gideon Weed (1833-1905) and his wife, Dr. Adaline Weed, who had settled in Seattle in 1870, the home next belonged to Martin Van Buren Stacy (1837-1901), before John Leary purchased it in about 1885. It was demolished in 1908, after the new Leary mansion at 1551 Tenth Avenue North on Capital Hill was finished. Though John Leary died before the new home was built, Eliza Leary lived there until her death in 1935.

Caption information source: "Voters elect businessman John Leary as mayor of the City of Seattle on July 14, 1884," by Cassandra Tate, HistoryLink.org Essay 2785 Caption information source: http://pcad.lib.washington.edu/building/18427

• Subjects (LCTGM): Mansions--Washington (State)--Seattle