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Overview

There were at least two boarding houses called the "Leland Hotel" operating in Seattle, WA, between 1900 and 1910. The first was located at 813 2nd Avenue, and was in operation by 1901. (See "She Has No Equal," Seattle Times, classfied ad, 02/23/1901, p. 14.) The second, was located at Pike Street and Post Alley, erected by 1903. A Seattle Times classified advertisement of 10/09/1904 was the first notice in that newspaper of the hotel at its second site, 84 Pike Street. (See "To House Movers," Seattle Times, classified ad, 10/09/1904, p. 31.)

Building History

Construction of the 18-room Leland Hotel #2 occurred between 1902 and 1903. Operations went on during 1903-1906 without an disturbance, but by the latter year, City Engineer Reginald Heber Thomson began the creation of a diagonal street that connected the end of Pike Street with Western Avenue below it, what became known as "Pike Place." (Pike could not be cut through at its base due to the steepness of the grade's drop toward the waterfront.) The incision of this diagonal street onto the street grid necessitated the shearing off of the Leland Hotel #2's eastern wall. By 08/17/1907, an open-air farmer's market opened on Pike Place adjacent to the Leland Hotel #2. The market had been advocated to provide Seattle consumers with an alterative to the "commission men," wholesale produce dealers that marked up the cost of food in the city. Their warehouses stood on Western Avenue just below. By the end of 08/1907, the Olds Family, the owners of the Leland Hotel #2, put it up for sale.

According to Paul Dorpat, a buyer stepped forward, the Goodwin Brothers, Ervin and John. (See Paul Dorpat, "Now & Then Before there was Pike Place, or a Market," Seattle Times Pacific NW, 06/03/2018, p. 23.) Two of the Goodwin Brothers--Frank (1865-1954) and John--settled in the Yukon just before 1900 and had success mining for gold. John returned to Seattle wealthy enough to start a real estate business, the Goodwin Real Estate Company, with another brother, Ervin. They also owned property on the southwest corner of Pike Street and 1st Avenue, on which they opened a sugar importing company. According to one source, "In 1907, Seattle Councilman Thomas Revelle organized local farmers to sell fresh produce out of the backs of their wagons on Pike Street. As commonly happens in Seattle, it rained. The farmers petitioned for shelter, but the city had no funds. Frank was on hand for opening day and saw the crowds. He drew a sketch for a shed to extend from the Leland Hotel north on company property along the west bank of the bluff. After consultation with his brothers, he refined the plan, dividing the area into seventy-six stalls. By November 30, 1907, the building was complete, every stall rented. In 1910, The Public Market & Department Store Company was created to develop and manage the Goodwin Real Estate Company’s holdings in the Pike Place area. Frank was president." (See Ancestry.com, "Frank Goodwin's Biography,<http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~treeleaf/goodwin/FRGOODW.htm>accessed 11/21/2014; no longer accessible on 06/06/2018.) The Goodwin's temporary stall shelters proved popular, and plans developed to build a larger, permanent structure to contain the market.

Thus, the Leland Hotel became amalgamated into Pike Place Market, which quickly grew to become a crucial commercial hub of modern Downtown Seattle. Maryland-born Thomas P. Revelle (1868-1941), like the Goodwins, came to Seattle during the Klondike Gold Rush, and attended law school at the University of Washington. He later became interested in politics, serving as a Seattle City Councilman from 1906 to 1911, before losing a Congressional race in 1910. He became a Federal Attorney for Western WA, thereafter.

Building Notes

The "Leland Hotel" was a relatively common name for a hotel between 1900 and 1905. Leland Hotels operated in Chicago, IL, Vancouver, BC, Moclips, WA, and Anaconda, MT, during this period.

On 10/31/1907, Seattle police arrested a group of six Socialists who had gathered near the new market set up on Pike Place. They had gathered to speak at this new social center over two days, 10/30-31/1907; they were arrested by 10 police and between 30 and 40 people who came with them, presumably Socialist opponents. The Seattle Times coverage indicated that this group in no way barred access to the Leland Hotel #2, "...a small house on the west side of the market place. Witnesses for the Socialists showed that at no time was the passageway to the Leland closed. They brought in evidence to show that nobody attempted to pass to or from the hotel while the meetings of October 30 and 31 were under way." (See "Traffic Was Not Blockaded," Seattle Times, 11/06/1907, p. 7.) Various factors in 1907 triggered a great deal of economic instability in the US, and by October of that year, a stock manipulation scheme involving shares of the United Copper Company, triggered a panic on Wall Street. The scheme by the Heinze Family, owners of United Copper, caused a chain reaction of brokerage and bank failures, that prompted the powerful banker J.P. Morgan to intercede and calm the New York banking community. The number of East Coast bank failures increased by late October, news that prompted Seattle's socialists to speak out against the current financial system.

Alteration

Two more floors were added to the Leland Hotel at the hillside base of the building, facing west.

PCAD id: 11273