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Overview

Located on the southeast corner of 1st Avenue and Pine Street, this masonry block contained in 1900 retail spaces on the first floor and single-room occupancy hotel rooms above. Its erection was financed by the Stimson Family, a lumber clan that re-established itself in Seattle from the Midwest in 1888 and 1889. Its architect was the British-born Charles H. Bebb, who worked in South Africa and Chicago, IL, before migrating to Seattle, WA, to work for the Denny Clay Company in 1893. The building originally had three stories, but in 06/1900, architect Bebb added another floor.

Building History

Lumbermen Charles D. Stimson (1857-1929) and his brother Frederick S. Stimson (1868-1921) financed the construction of this four-story, brick-faced commercial block. The Seattle architect Charles H. Bebb (1862-1942) has been credited with its design, which was completed in 1900, a year before his partnership with Louis L. Mendel, Sr., (1867-1940) began.

The building had its principal facade facing 1st Avenue, but a secondary side facing Pine Street also possessed storefronts.

The Samis Foundation, a large Downtown landowner, controlled the property until 07/19/2001, when it deeded it (at no cost) to Gatewood Apartments, LLC. This entity then sold the structure to 101 Pine Street, LLC, for $2,495,400 on 03/30/2017.

By at least 02/1901, it functioned as the Colonnade Hotel.

In 2023, 101 Pine Street LLC, owned the building and it functioned as the "Palihotel."

Building Notes

The Colonnade Hotel measured 111 feet long on the east-west dimension and 113 feet on the north-south and occupied a 12,543-square-foot (0.29-acre) lot. The block contained 50,510 gross square feet, 34,100, net. The first floor was rectangular, but a light court pierced the second through fourth floors, giving the upper portions of the builing a U-shape. This light court was common for office buildings and hotels to provide daylight and ventilation, as well as providing numerous escape routes in case of fire. Hotel fires were a scourge of 19th-century America, and hotelkeepers had to be constantly vigilant about fire risks.

The building originally had a vaguely Neo-classical appearance, but lacked many ornamental details identifying it as one style or another. Roughly, the building, had a traditional, tri-partite elevation composition, consisting of a base accommodating retail storefronts, shaft and top bounded by two projecting cornices.The only ornamental touches to the building originally were the window trim elements including stone sills and keystones, as well as a metal cornice along the top highlighted by a dentil band. Windows of the second through the fourth floors had brick voussoirs, while those of the second and third had cut-stone keystones above each opening. Windows of the fourth floor were highlighted with projecting brick casings in a simple pattern.

Unreinforced masonry set in a Flemish bond and old-growth timber columns, joists and beams composed the building's structure. On the first floor, decorative courses and sills of rusticated, cut-stone provided textural contrast to the smooth brick of the exterior. Historians of the Johnson Partnership discussed its structure: "The construction is of unreinforced masonry with heavy timber columns or wood-framed walls supporting heavy-timber beams and 2" x 14" or 2" x 12" wood joists for all floors and the roof. Wooden joists typically run north-south. The building’s structure was majorly augmented and seismically upgraded in the early 1990s, with a steel braced frame running along the northern and western exterior walls. Seven east-west structural bearing lines create one short bay on the north and five equal bays along the western exterior wall. Seven north-south structural bearing lines create one short bay the second bay from the east, and five equal bays along the northern exterior wall." (See Johnson Partnership, City of Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board.gov, "Colonnade Hotel/Gatewood Apartments," published 11/2016, accessed 04/05/2023.)

Alteration

As noted, this Stimson-financed building had three stories originally, but a fourth was added in 06/1900. The Seattle Daily Times wrote: "Architect C.H. Bebb has filed plans for the addition of a fourth story to the existing building at 1524-1534 First Avenue. the building is that of Stimson Bros. Matthew Dow is the contractor. The cost of the addition is estimated at $8000." (See "New Buildings," Seattle Daily Times, 06/23/1900, p. 17.)