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Building History

Thomas Wickham Prosch (1850-1915), publisher in the 1870s of the Daily Pacific Tribune, and later, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, erected this two-story building that housed offices on the first floor and and a public hall on the second. (The upper floor could be used for meetings or dances.) The building, like many of the 1880s, had an unreinforced masonry structure. Prosch, a prominent Seattle booster and Secretary of the Chamber of Commerce, lived nearby at 611 9th Avenue c. 1888 with his family. Originally, Prosch erected the building to serve as an investment property, but, after 1897, gold began to pour into the city from gold strikes in Alaska and the Yukon. The Seattle Chamber of Commerce recognized the need for the government to open an assay office here, an agency that tested and certified the purity of precious metals. Seattle Chamber of Commerce members lobbied the US Department of the Treasury to locate an assay office in the city; given his connection with the chamber, Prosch offered to rent this small office building for its use. Opened on 07/15/1898, the Seattle Assay Office operated in this location until 1932, when it relocated to Seattle's US Immigration Station.

In 1907, the Seattle Assay Office ranked as the second busiest in the nation, and had become an important portal for new gold into the US. The banking journal, The Commercial West, stated: "The Seattle Assay office now ranks second only to New York in the volume of receipts of gold, the total for the year, which ended June 30th, 1907, amounting to $22,977,604.79. This is a gain of $1,270,438.50 over 1901, when the receipts reached the highest figures recorded prior to the year closed [1907]. The receipts were somewhat less than had been expected at this time on account of the labor troubles in the Tanana region of Alaska, the output having been in the neighborhood of $3,000,000 instead of $12,000,000, as would in all probability have been the clean-up if labor conditions has [sic] been normal."

The article continued: "Even in making comparison with the New York office as regards the volume of business it is to be taken into account that the major portion of the business of the New York assay office is handling gold that merely shifts from one financial center to another, while the Seattle office os the medium through which is given to the world actual additions to the world's stock of the precious metal. Since the golden stream was started south from the Alaska and Yukon workings nine years ago the addition to the world's supply of gold from that source has been in round numbers $140,000,000." The article concluded complaining about the poor conditions in which the Seattle office had to work in 1907: "In spite of the vast increase in the business of the Seattle Assay office the powers that be down at the National capital still hold out agains giving assayers a building adequate for its work. A changes of spirti is hoped for at the next assembling of Congress." (See "Seattle Assay Office Is Second," The Commercial West, 07/13/1907, p. 35.)

By 1935, the Deutsches Haus, a German cultural organization, bought the former Assay Office, and used it as a meeting site. In 07/1943, a coalition of several groups--the Sunset Club, Seattle Garden Club, Colonial Dames, Junior League and the English Speaking Union--joined to rent Prosch's Hall and renovate it into an officer's club during World War II. The first floor was used for office space and a reception room, the basement became a grill, and the upper floor, a dormitory. (See "Old Assey [sic] Office Transformed into New Officer's Club," Seattle Times, 07/18/1943, p. 2.) At the war's end, it was returned to the Deutsches Haus group. It remained owned by the German Heritage Society in 2012.

Building Notes

Seen from 9th Avenue, the Prosch Building was composed of two parts: a two-story main section with two retail spaces on the main floor and a meeting hall on the second, and an appended section to the south, having two lower stories, probably built c. 1900. On the main portion's first floor, a classical pediment covered the entrance to the upper floor, probably added at this time. (This sort of classical element was unlikely to have been part of the original composition in 1886.) A classical entablature hung over paired doors on the south addition's first floor. Utilitarian fixed plate glass windows illuminated the two storefronts, with clerestories admitting the maximum daylight into the spaces. Upper floors featured arched windows, the fenestration of main section having an array of five arched windows terminated on either side by thin, rectangular windows.

Prosch's Hall was listed in the Seattle City Directory until 1900 (p. 846), but did not appear in that of 1901.

In 2012, the former assay office occupied a 8,436-square-foot lot and contained 9,048 square feet (including a 2,440-square-foot basement); land and building had an approximate value of $675,800.

Alterations

Alterations have occurred to the fenestration over time, including the bricking up of some openings on the north side. At the roofline, a decorative cornice jutted just above the parapet. The National Park Service elaborated on some of thees changes: "The U.S. Assay Office has undergone several minor alterations, including a narrow addition featuring arched windows similar to rest of the building added to the south side of the building. Many of the building's windows have been replaced or filled-in. Two first-floor windows on the north side of the building have been filled with brick. One south side window and all the second story windows on the rear (west) of the building have been replaced. A small wood sided addition has been added to the southwest corner of the building's second floor." (See National Park Service, "Hard Drive to the Klondike: Promoting Seattle during the Gold Rush: Historic Resource Study for Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park Chapter Six,"Accessed 11/30/2012.) Remodeling was done to transform it from the Deutsches Haus into an US military officer's club. The basement became used as an eating area, and fitted out with kitchen equipment. At this time, the exterior received a uniform coat of grey paint. Alterations were also done to the Prosch Building in 1960.