Author Archives: BrendanMcK

Broadway State Bank: the past life of the Tully’s Building

Posted on by

As many readers of Capitol Hill Seattle Blog are likely aware, Pike/Pine (and the area around it) was once Seattle’s original Auto Row, with many of the buildings here originally built as auto showrooms, workshops, and parts stores. But there are a few exceptions to this; Broadway High School (a portion of which survives as Broadway Performance Hall), built in 1903, a couple of years before the first dealership opened on the hill, predates auto-row. The 1911 First Covenant Church (originally Swedish Tabernacle) was built during the auto-row era, but clearly not as an auto-related structure. And the building that is today home to Tully’s Coffee on Broadway and Pike – well, that’s a bit more complicated.

Mash-up of current location and 1913 Architect’s drawing

The story behind that building starts a few blocks to the north, outside of auto-row, at 235 E Broadway, now home to Jai Thai, but back then home to Leary’s Pharmacy. In 1911, the pharmacist, Mr P Leary, encouraged a group of investors from Seattle and British Columbia to invest in a new bank project, and the Broadway State Bank opened its doors in an existing building at Broadway and Denny later that year.

Business was booming, buoyed by the auto trade nearby – and retail along Broadway – and a couple of years later in 1913, the bank announced plans to build and move to a new more spacious home, at the corner of Broadway and Pike, right in the heart of Auto Row.  â€śThe Broadway district has expanded beyond our fondest expectations” the bank’s President W P Philips said at the time, “Pike Street and Broadway are becoming important business centers.”

The existing wood frame in that location was razed, and in its place was erected the building we know today – “Absolutely fireproof” and “Built of steel and concrete, with cream glazed brick finish”, said Seattle Times in July 1913, “the new Broadway State Bank will be one of the finest in this rapidly developing district.” Doors opened in November that year. 

1913 Architect’s drawings by Beezer Brothers, from Seattle DPD.

The architects for this project were the Beezer Brothers, a firm headed by the twins Louis and Michael J Beezer, originally from Pennsylvania, and who designed several churches and houses in Pittsburgh before arriving in Seattle in 1907. Here they worked on many commercial and residential and projects (including two houses in Capitol Hill’s historic Harvard-Belmont district), but are perhaps best known for projects associated with the local Roman Catholic diocese, including St. Joseph’s school and rectory on 18th, and Immaculate Conception School at 18th and Cherry.

Alas, things did not work out so well for the bank: its doors remained shut on the morning of January 18th 1917, having been taken over by an examiner after failing victim to bad management. Rumors that the Northern Bank and Trust Company – which was based in the Seaboard building on Westlake Park downtown, today home to a branch of Seattle’s Best Coffee  – was somehow involved in the Broadway State Bank’s affairs lead to a run on that bank also, setting off a panic among Seattle’s banks.

1937 Photo from Puget Sound Regional Archives

The intervening years saw a variety of other tenants, including an automobile financing company, and a general insurance firm. In the 50s, the building was home to the offices and recording studios of pioneering Seattle record label Linden Records. More recently, the building was home to a Quality Rentals rent-to-own furniture store (the owners of which still own the building), which in 2000 was replaced by the current tenant, Tully’s.

So, from Bank to coffee house? Almost: the previous building in that location was a mixed use building with apartments above commercial; and thanks to a cash register looting incident in January 1907 which was reported in the Seattle Times of the day, we know the name of one of the business which called that location home before the bank was built:  Broadway Coffee House. Plus ça change…

Brendan McKeon is a budding amateur historian and volunteer tour guide with the Seattle Architecture Foundation, and will be one of the guides on their Pike/Pine walking tour, which has its next outing on Sat July 14th, and three other dates after that this season.

CHS Retro Photo: A Farewell To Undre Arms…

Posted on by

The Bovingdon of 1937 meets 11th & Union of 2011

With contents recently sold off and residents moved out, it’s only a matter of time before the infamous Undre Arms meets the wrecking ball. Alas, time has not been kind to The Arms; its rather dilapidated state betrays barely a hint of its former grandeur.

Originally built as the Bovingdon in 1904 by a John Sidney Bovingdon, who was born in Towanada, Pennsylvania, graduated law school at Buffalo NY, and bounced between Philadelphia, Cornell (to study agriculture), California, back to Pennsylvania and ended up in Seattle as a teacher where he dabbled briefly in real estate with this building before returning to teaching. 

The Bovingdon of 1952 meets Undre Arms of 2011

 “The Bovingdon Flats”, ran the Seattle Times For Rent advert in 1906, “with every modern convenience; steam heat, janitor service. Madison and Eleventh.”

The building as it looked in 1937

The building as it looked in 1952

The architect hired by Bovingdon for this building was a William P White, who is often described as being “well-known Seattle Architect”, yet little is known about his birth, death, or education. But we do know that he was quite prolific in Seattle, Vancouver and elsewhere in the Puget Sound region, credited with design of many apartment buildings, including the large block that sits opposite Madison from Madison Market, at Madison and 16th, the Kinnear building in Queen Anne, and the Freedman Building in the International District.

At some point, possibly in the early 50’s, the Bovingdon was given a makeover (makeundre?), with new siding applied, and the elegant porches and balconies removed in favor of a simpler look. (Many other elegant structures around the hill and elsewhere in Seattle suffered a similar fate around this time.)

The moniker “Undre Arms” was in place by at least 1976, when a Seattle Times column quoted then-owner Paul McKillop as saying that the spelling UndRE “gives it a little bit of class – which is the extent of the building’s class.” Later on, in the .COM era, residents added a .COM to the name and set up a web site to advise readers that they did not particularly care for the opinions of the landlord in unit 1, owner of the infamous sign.

Historic photos courtesy King County Assessor Property Record Card Collection (1937, 1952), Washington State Archives, Puget Sound Branch.

Brendan McKeon is a volunteer Pike/Pine tour guide for the Seattle Architecture Foundation and an occasional repeat photographer, and hopes to match up several other buildings on the hill with their historic photos over the Summer.

CHS Retro Photo: A Wild Rose, By Any Other Name…

Posted on by

Lorraine Court, in 1938 and 2011

“Thoroughly modern and up-to-date apartment house in suites of 3 rooms with bath, completely furnished; reservations can be made after Monday. References required.” – so ran the For Rent ad in the Seattle Times of 1907 for the newly-completed Lorraine Court apartment building – today known as the Winston Building (also known as the Mandalay and the Elysium at various times in the interim).

The original owner of the building was an Alfred M Birkel, who immigrated from Germany to Kansas at the age of 16 to take up farming. He and his wife arrived in Seattle (via Chicago) just in time for the Great Fire of 1889, and became involved in the hotel and residential property business. The architects for this building appear to be Carl Breitung & Theobald Buchinger, from Munich and Vienna respectively, who are also responsible for Holy Names Academy, also on the hill, and Good Shepherd Center in Wallingford.

The corner of this building was originally home to a grocery store, and changed tenants over the years; 1985 it was home to the Sundance Tavern, when a group of five women, who were scouting locations for a new lesbian bar, fell in love with the location, and the rest is history. 26 years later, the Wildrose is still going strong. (Not the oldest still-running gay bar on the hill, however – that distinction appears to goes to The Crescent on Olive.)

Brendan is a volunteer guide for the Seattle Architecture Foundation and an occasional repeat photographer, and hopes to match up several other buildings on the hill with their historic photos over the Summer. He’s giving SAF’s Pike/Pine walking tour this weekend, all about Pike/Pine’s history as Seattle’s original auto dealership row. SAF also have a Gay Pioneer  Square walking tour this weekend, about gay life in Seattle before it moved to the hill.