Bailey Gatzert was the eighth mayor of Seattle, Washington, USA, serving from 1875 to 1876. He was the first Jewish mayor of Seattle, narrowly missed being the first Jewish mayor of a major American city (Moses Bloom became mayor of Iowa City, Iowa in 1873), and has been the only Jewish mayor of Seattle so far.
Gatzert was born in 1829 in Hesse Darmstadt, Germany, and emigrated to Natchez, Mississippi in 1849, coming west four years later. He married Babette Schwabacher in San Francisco in 1862, and in 1869 opened a Seattle branch of Schwabacher Brothers and Company, a hardware and general store he managed as partners with his brothers-in-law Abraham, Louis, and Sigmund Schwabacher.
In addition to being mayor, Gatzert was a charter member of the Seattle Chamber of Commerce, served on the Seattle City Council, was president of Puget Sound National Bank and Peoples Savings Bank, and founded Washington's first synagogue, Ohaveth Shalom, which opened in 1892.
Gatzert was born in 1829 in Hesse Darmstadt, Germany, and emigrated to Natchez, Mississippi in 1849, coming west four years later.
In addition to being mayor, Gatzert was a charter member of the Seattle Chamber of Commerce, served on the Seattle City Council, was president of Puget Sound National Bank and Peoples Savings Bank, and founded Washington's first synagogue, Ohaveth Shalom, which opened in 1892.
Gatzert was partner and general manager of Schwabacher and Co, one of Seattle's earliest hardware and general mercantile stores, later to become the start of wholesale trade in Seattle.
Testimony to Seattleite BaileyGatzert's influence on the turn of the century metropolis are his namesakes -- Gatzert pier (Pier 64 at the foot of Virginia, 1890), Gatzert Elementary School, the BaileyGatzert riverboat, and a 1996 stamp of the riverboat issued by the United States Postal Service.
Gatzert was elected mayor of Seattle on August 2, 1875.
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