AKA: Olympic Block, Pioneer Square, Seattle, WA; Cascade Hotel, Pioneer Square, Seattle, WA

Structure Type: built works - dwellings -public accommodations - hotels

Designers: Saunders and Houghton, Architects (firm); Edwin Walker Houghton (architect); Charles Willard Saunders (architect)

Dates: [unspecified]

8 stories

103 1st Avenue South
Seattle , WA 98104-2501

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First Avenue South and Yesler Way

The Olympic Hotel, located on the corner of 1st Avenue and Yesler Way, existed in Seattle, WA, before 1905, and was erected following the fire just after 1890. Saunders and Houghton served as the architects. Main tenants of the first Olympic Hotel included the Cooper and Levy Outfitters, Klondike suppliers, and the ticket and baggage offices of the Northern Pacific Railroad, c. 1905. In the 1950s, the hotel had been renamed the "Cascade Hotel" and smal shops, such as Sam's Cafe, B and R Restaurant, and Alaska Menswear, occupied first floor retail shops.

This eight-story building was partly demolished in a memorable structural collapse in 1972. One corner of the Olympic gave way when an interior bearing wall had been mistakenly removed during a remodeling. In 1974, the entire building was demolished.

PCAD id: 6637