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AKA: Cornish School of Music #2, Capitol Hill, Seattle, WA; Burnley School of Professional Art, Seattle, WA; Art Institute of Seattle, Seattle, WA
Structure Type: built works - commercial buildings - office buildings; built works - commercial buildings - stores
Designers: Thompson and Thompson, Architects (firm); Charles Lawton Thompson (architect); Charles Bennett Thompson Sr. (architect)
Dates: constructed 1905-1906
3 stories, total floor area: 18,000 sq. ft.
Building History
During the mid-1910s, Nellie C. Cornish (1876-1956) operated her School of Music in the Booth Building, located on the corner of Pine Street and Broadway in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood. Quarters in the Booth Building were her second. She opened in 1902 with space in the arts-oriented Holyoke Block. (See Mildred Andrews and John Caldbick, HistoryLink.org, "Cornish College of the Arts," published 11/12/2014, accessed 04/09/2024.)
By the mid-1910s, a number of automobile-related shops and dealerships operated in this section of Capitol Hill. The Allen Tire and Rubber Company had its store in the first-floor storefront.
In 1946, the Booth Building housed the Burnley School of Professional Art, founded in that year by Edwin and Elise Burnley. Jess Cauthorn bought the school in 1960, later changing its name to the Art Institute of Seattle; the Institute has since moved from the Booth Building to a new facility on Elliott Avenue.
Building Notes
The Booth Building was an eclectic building with some Mission Revival style details. Interestingly, architect Abraham Albertson chose to retain a Spanish-flavored architectural style c. 1920 when he designed the Cornish School's new Kerry Hall many blocks away on Broadway.
PCAD id: 24419
