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Structure Type: built works - commercial buildings - office buildings; built works - commercial buildings - stores
Designers: Bassford and Haupt, Building Contractors (firm); Bonnell Construction Company (firm); Burnham and Root, Architects (firm); Burnham, Daniel H., and Company, Architects (firm); Sutton, Whitney and Dugan, Architects (firm); J. E. Bonnell (building contractor); Daniel Hudson Burnham (architect); Earl Nathaniel Dugan (architect); John Wellborn Root (architect); Albert Sutton (architect); Harrison Allen Whitney (architect)
Dates: constructed 1890, demolished 1949
6 stories
Overview
The noted Chicago architectural firm of Burnham and Root designed this six-story office building for the Fidelity Trust Company. Commisioning such esteemed architects to design this building suggested that the Tacoma firm wanted to make a prestigious statement with its new headquarters. By 1909, another six stories had been added to the building, the addition by the firm of D.H. Burnham and Company.
Building Notes
Many architects located their offices in the Fidelity Block. Oliver Perry Dennis (1858-1927) occupied Room #520 in 1893. (See R.L. Polk and Company's Tacoma, Washington, City Directory, 1893, p. 926.) Architect G.W. Bullard (1855-1935) occupied Room #506 in the Fidelity Building in 1900. In 1905, architectural firm Russell and Babcock had rooms #401-402 in the same building. Frederick Heath (1861-1953), an architect in partnership with Ambrose Russell from 1901-c.1903, had Rooms #503-504.
The building's skin was sheathed in buff-colored brick.
In 1917, the Fidelity Trust Company had assets of $6,273,587.61, making it one of the larger trust companies in the Puget Sound region. The Dexter Horton Trust and Savings Bank, by comparison, had assets of $7,986,551.68 and the Union Savings Trust Company of Seattle had $5,608,862.44 at the same time. The Spokane and Eastern Trust Company was one of the biggest in the state with assets of $12,552,537.99. (See Trust Companies of the United States, 1917 Edition, [New York: United States Mortgage and Trust Company, 1917], pp. 530-532.)
Alteration
The Fidelity Building originally had six floors, but six more were added in 1907-1908 by D.H. Burnham and Company of Chicago.
Alterations were made to the Fidelity Trust Company Building's second floor in 1919. Plans for changes were made by the firm of Sutton, Whitney and Dugan, Architects. J.E. Bonnell served as the building contractor. (See the Tacoma Public Library.org, Tacoma-Pierce County Buildings Index, "949-55 Broadway, Tacoma," accessed 02/27/2020.)
Demolition
The Fidelity Trust Company Building was razed in 04/1949, and was replaced by an F.W. Woolworth Department Store (1950).
PCAD id: 17556
