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Building History

This was the first airplane factory of the Boeing Company, what would become the dominant producer of passenger planes in the U.S. and a significant U.S. military defense contractor. During the second half of the twentieth century, Boeing was Seattle's biggest employer. This gable-roofed plant opened 06/1917. Windows line all floors, admitting light to the shop floors. A two-floor wooden building painted bright red, is part of the ensemble of hangars and offices at Boeing Field. It stands adjacent to the Museum of Flight. The building was erected on land formerly owned by the Heath Shipyards in the Duwamish Tideflats. In this plant, the Boeing Airplane Company turned out its first large-scale order, 50 B and W Seaplanes for the US Government during World War I. William Edward Boeing (1881-1956) designed this seaplane with his friend and collaborator, George Conrad Westervelt (1880-1956), an Annapolis graduate in naval engineering, who went on to become a Vice-president of the Curtiss-Wright Corporation. Prior to this manufacturing facility, Boeing operated a plant on Lake Union c. 1915-1916; in 1916, this earlier factory served the Pacific Aero Products Company, whose name was changed to the Boeing Airplane Company in 1917.

PCAD id: 11803