AKA: First Korn Building, Pioneer Square, Seattle, WA

Structure Type: built works - commercial buildings - office buildings

Designers: Fisher and Clark, Architects (firm); George Clark (architect); Elmer Horace Fisher (architect)

Dates: constructed 1888-1889, demolished 1889

119 Yesler Way
Pioneer Square, Seattle, WA 98104

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Overview

This commercial building was erected by the family of Charles C. Terry in the late 1880s. It lasted for a short time before it perished in the Great Seattle Fire of 06/06/1889.

Building History

Seattle pioneer Charles C. Terry (1830-1867) purchased the lot on which the Korn Building #1 was built in the 1850s. His heirs continued to own the property in the late 1880s when this first business block was erected. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer said of the Korn Building #1 in 02/1889: “When Mr. Yesler made the original plat of the claim, years ago, he sold one lot on the corner opposite to Mr. C.C. Terry for $200. This property is now occupied by the new Korn block, and is still owned by the Terry heirs.” (See “The Largest for the Year,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 02/17/1889, p. 5.)

The short-lived firm of Fisher and Clark designed three known buildings, the James and Hastings Building, Port Townsend, WA (1888-1889), the Colman Building #1, Seattle, WA (1887), and the Korn Building #1 (1886-1889).

The building took its name from Moses Korn (1833-1894), a pharmacist, who leased space in the building.

Demolition

The Korn Building #1 burned about less than a year after its completion in the Great Fire of 1889.

PCAD id: 4636