HM: And what about the Perry Hotel.
DG: That’s one of the saddest and hardest projects. That’s where I got my feet wet with working with a major institution for historic preservation. It was a difficult land use issue. I had to do the best with what I had at the time and unfortunately its one of those sad cases where we had a piece of property on First Hill that was stunningly beautiful and had been built with innovative building techniques. Typically the rebar runs up and down, but it wasn’t built like that. It was actually built with bands of steel that were deliberately curved in different ways. The Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart essentially took off one wall of the building to put up the Cabrini Tower, then they added a hospital wing off to one side, and then they did a lot of extensive changes.
In some places it was absolutely solid. You couldn’t take a drill to it, it was that strong. In other places, it was crumbling. Unfortunately, no one had access to the original building plans which would have made a huge difference because when they got to tearing the building down they realized it had a double foundation. They ended up taking jack hammers to take it down. If we had known about that, that it had an extra support structure, it would have made all the difference in the world, but we didn’t have that information at the time.
The Sisters had a plan for development of the property, but because of religious politics, everything had to be approved through Rome at the time. This meant the development languished forever.
Most people aren’t aware of some facts about the Perry. Sam Hill of the Northern Railroad actually lived there, as did William Boeing. A number of important people were associated with that building. And the building had huge religious value because of Mother Cabrini’s association and her sainthood. The Perry Hotel was important to Mother Cabrini, it was her last purchase. Some say she never stepped foot in the building, but I kind of find that hard to believe because she was up here, and at the Cathedral.
We managed to save a lot of the terra cotta artifacts off the building. They’re sitting in a yard, basically, on plats, so a lot of that stuff is available. It’s supposed to go on a new building, but that fell through. I don’t know what’s going to happen. They proposed with LIHI to put up a low-income housing project there, but there are a lot of problems with that particular project.
DG: That’s one of the saddest and hardest projects. That’s where I got my feet wet with working with a major institution for historic preservation. It was a difficult land use issue. I had to do the best with what I had at the time and unfortunately its one of those sad cases where we had a piece of property on First Hill that was stunningly beautiful and had been built with innovative building techniques. Typically the rebar runs up and down, but it wasn’t built like that. It was actually built with bands of steel that were deliberately curved in different ways. The Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart essentially took off one wall of the building to put up the Cabrini Tower, then they added a hospital wing off to one side, and then they did a lot of extensive changes.
In some places it was absolutely solid. You couldn’t take a drill to it, it was that strong. In other places, it was crumbling. Unfortunately, no one had access to the original building plans which would have made a huge difference because when they got to tearing the building down they realized it had a double foundation. They ended up taking jack hammers to take it down. If we had known about that, that it had an extra support structure, it would have made all the difference in the world, but we didn’t have that information at the time.
The Sisters had a plan for development of the property, but because of religious politics, everything had to be approved through Rome at the time. This meant the development languished forever.
Most people aren’t aware of some facts about the Perry. Sam Hill of the Northern Railroad actually lived there, as did William Boeing. A number of important people were associated with that building. And the building had huge religious value because of Mother Cabrini’s association and her sainthood. The Perry Hotel was important to Mother Cabrini, it was her last purchase. Some say she never stepped foot in the building, but I kind of find that hard to believe because she was up here, and at the Cathedral.
We managed to save a lot of the terra cotta artifacts off the building. They’re sitting in a yard, basically, on plats, so a lot of that stuff is available. It’s supposed to go on a new building, but that fell through. I don’t know what’s going to happen. They proposed with LIHI to put up a low-income housing project there, but there are a lot of problems with that particular project.
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| Front: The Perry Hotel. J. Guerrieri, Manager. Madison Street and Boren Avenue. Seattle, Washington. |
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| Back: Postcard sent January 23, 1911. |
Does this hotel have sort of like a Gothic architectural look to it?
Ya, looks Chateauesque with some gothic touches.
Cliffe
I love it. It is simply breathtaking.
I just finished reading Mother Cabrini’s Biography and got curious about the Columbus Hospital in Seattle, so I googled, and this is one that touched me deeply…as if looking at life in 1911 and Mother Cabirni talking to me. Are the terra cotta arifacts still available?
Thanks for posting this historical postcard. I’m so sad the original building was not able to be restored. My grandmother was in inpatient in Columbus Sanitarium in 1918 and was actually married there by St. James Cathedral. I am trying to obtain some original records through Sisters of Sacred Heart. I too would like to know where the terra cotta artifacts are now and if they are available.
Thanks, Lisa