Archives West Finding Aid

Charles H. Baker was born November 30, 1864, in Chicago, Illinois. After graduating from Cornell University as a civil engineer in 1886, Baker began work the following year for Seattle, Lake Shore & Eastern Railroad in 1887. While traveling past 276-foot Snoqualmie Falls, he began formulating a plan to harness its energy, and after the economic Panic of 1893 left him unemployed, Baker convinced his father to finance his idea for the Snoqualmie Falls Power Company. His father, William T. Baker, was a wealthy businessman, president of the Chicago Board of Trade, and organizer of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. Work began in 1898, and the plant was opened in July, 1899. 1903 was disastrous year for Baker and the plant due to a destructive fire and the death of William T. Baker. Estate lawyers refused to recognize Charles H. Baker as a partner of the Snoqualmie Falls Power Company because the company had been under his father's name only. In 1908, the Snoqualmie Falls Power Company was sold to the Seattle-Tacoma Power Company, forerunner of Puget Sound Energy.

The Commercial Club of Chicago was founded in 1877 by a small group of businessmen who wanted to help shape the development of Chicago. In the early 1900s, the club played an instrumental role in the development of an urban plan for the city. In 1907, the club commissioned internationally renowned architect and city planner Daniel H. Burnham to develop the plan, which was published in 1909 as Plan of Chicago . It was one of the first comprehensive development plans designed for an American city. As of 2004, the Commercial Club of Chicago exists as a large membership organization of leading Chicago business and civic leaders.

The Commercial Club of Chicago donated the photograph album of their visit to the Snoqualmie Falls Power Company and surrounding environs to C.H. (Cornelius Holgate) Hanford. Hanford was born in 1849. In 1855, he was carried as a young child into the Seattle blockhouse serving as a fort during an attack by Native Americans. As an adult, Hanford served as a lawyer, judge, and public official. In 1889, he was appointed the last chief justice of the Washington Territory. Most notably, Hanford served as the U.S. circuit judge for the western district of Washington State from 1898 to 1912. In 1912, an impeachment trial began to look into allegations of drunkenness and misconduct, but he resigned before the trial's end. Hanford became a writer and editor of historical fiction and nonfiction before his death in 1926.