Seattle 9/24/08 Dear Ellen, Stayed at the Tourist Hotel last night but am staying at this hotel tonight. Spent the evening at Lechi Park. With Love.
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| Hotel Stevens, Seattle. Postcard sent September 24, 1908. |
Past Post: Hotel Stevens 1908
January 21st, 2009 @ 12:50 am by Cliffe | Sorted Past Post |
Past Post today shows Hotel Stevens. Beautiful building, but I can’t find what happened to it. Anyone have any idea when this one was torn dow n? UW Digital Collections has this photo and present day view is here. In September of 1908, the author writes:
Well, according to this, the Hotel Stevens and the Burke Building behind it were both demolished to build the current Jackson Federal Building:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Seattle_-_Hotel_Stevens_-_1900.jpg
This site says that the JFB went up in 1971:
http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=119377
So, 1971! I wonder if it stayed a hotel or became something else, though, like offices and retail, until it was razed.
My best guess would be torn down around 1974 when other buildings on that block such as the Burke Building were torn down to build the Federal Building.
http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=119377
Looks like the Stevens Hotel location was the original post office location for Seattle as well.
What a shame. That was such a beautiful building.
I agree with Bryan on the date. When the Burke Building (right behind this) was torn down then, it was a pretty big deal, but this building was mising it’s fancy cornice by then so it wasn’t missed as much!
WOW, the new building there is much nicer.
(hoping with all my might that Matt is being sarcastic)
The concrete federal building is a prime example of how terrible 70′s architecture was. Cold, bland concrete, poorly functional inside and out.
The bright side of this story is that they didn’t tear down the old federal building to build the new one. The federal building across the street on 1st is a beautiful work of art.
Matt the Engineer: I work with MattW and I can tell you he is
Did Some research…
This is the Frye Block (almost visible on Pediment) built right after the great fire by George Frye on the site of the original Frye Opera House.
http://content.lib.washington.edu/cgi-bin/viewer.exe?CISOROOT=/pcarch&CISOPTR=218&CISOMODE=thumb
Thanks Colin. Wow, the Frye Opera House was pretty funky.
Yes, all of the above is pretty accurate (except where did these remarks about the Frye Opera House come from? Another thread?)
It was a hotel pretty much down to the end, though only a step or so up from Skid Road by the end. Kerouac stayed there when he passed through Seattle, paying something like $2.50 if I remember right, which for him was a splurge but he praised it for being a lot cleaner than where he usually ended up.
Also on that block was a burlesque theater the loss of which in the Federal Building project I believe Henry Broderick lamented in a piece he wrote.
Here’s a 1903 map of the block, showing the hotel already there: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sanborn_1893-1903_Seattle_map_3_right_detail_-_01.jpg
So sad that these grand hotels are leaving us. This wonderful hotel will be memoralized in my new book … Seattle’s Historic Hotels coming out the end of this year. http://www.arcadiapublishing.com …. wrote Seattle’s Historic Restaurants which was a lot of fun!
“…The… Hotel Stevens Is run on the European plan. Rooms 75c per day and up. Rooms with private path, $2.00 per day and up. A first-class family place devoted particularly to local transient people. Restaurant in connection.”
Hope some of you check out my book when it comes out!
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