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Overview

In 1884, a cluster of wood-frame hotels stood near the corner of Commercial (later renamed 1st Avenue South) and Main Streets in Seattle's Pioneer Square business district; these included the New England Hotel on the northwest corner, the San Francisco Hotel on the southwest corner, the Arlington House on the southeast corner, and the Brunswick Hotel near the northeast corner on Commercial.

Building History

The New England Hotel, managed by L.C. Harmon, was in operation by 1876. (See New England Hotel advertisement, in Kirk C. Ward, Business Directory of the City of Seattle for the Year 1876, (Seattle: B.L. Northrup, Printer, 1876), p. 19.)

By 1881, Mrs. L.C. Harmon operated the New England Hotel on the corner of Commercial and Main Streets. A newspaper column by Seattle Times writer C.T. Conover, quoted items read in the Seattle Daily Chronicle of 11/17/1881: "Mrs. L.C. Harmon advertised the New England Hotel at First Avenue South and Main, ‘newly built, hardwood floors, and first-class in every respect.'” (See C.T. Conover, “Just Cogitating: Items Gleaned from Seattle Newspaper of 67 Years Ago,” Seattle Times, 01/06/1949, p. 31.)

Building Notes

As per the Sanborn Map of 1888, the first floor of the New England Hotel #1 contained roughly four equal quadrants, a dining room (northeast side), an office and bar (southeast), hotel laundry (southwest) and kitchen (northwest). A meat market stood next door to the north with a sausage factory behind it.

Demolition

The New England Hotel #1 burned in the Great Seattle Fire of 06/06/1889.

PCAD id: 16513