09/07/2026
In the early decades of the twentieth century, America’s budding love affair with automobiles was about speed and style. During this week in Washington (September 10 and 11, 1909) a 24-hour car race proved the value of endurance and reliability.
Three cars circled the one-mile dirt track at The Meadows Race Track in the Georgetown neighborhood in south Seattle. Built in 1902 for horse racing, the grandstands held up for 10,000 fans, including private boxes and a restaurant.
Averaging 30 miles per hour, three cars circled the track through the night and into the next afternoon, alternating drivers. It was mostly a monotonous affair filled with moments of terror due to near collisions. The Allen-Kingston, the favorite, broke down late in the race and didn’t finish. The White Steamer, powered by steam, “was beset with troubles and caught fire twice,” according to the Seattle P-I. The Hudson, a Detroit product, “reeled off mile after mile through the long hours,” and won the race, logging 705 miles.
A legislative ban on gambling on horse racing in 1909 led to the eventual shutdown of the track. Later the land gave way to the development of Boeing field.
Post written courtesy of David J Jepsen - Historian
Image from Museum of History & Industry Collection. Racecar at The Meadows race track during the Golden Potlatch, Seattle, 1914. Photographer Frank H. Nowell. Image number 2011.79.2.18.
