Grand Opera House during Mayor Hiram Gill's 1911 speech

Shortly after Hiram Gill was elected mayor of Seattle, some people wanted to remove him from office for not enforcing the city's anti-vice laws. When the mayor wanted to answer his accusers, his supporters set up a noontime meeting at the Grand Opera House. So many people crowded into the opera house that a second meeting was set up at the Seattle Theatre, across Cherry Street. Even so, some 8,000 people didn't get into either theater .
This photo shows the crowds rushing from the Grand Opera House to the Seattle Theatre to hear Mayor Gill.