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Overview

Seattle's first bank required stout walls to assure depositors of the Dexter Horton and Company's permanence, and its second bank location stood as one of Seattle's earliest brick and stone commercial buildings. Most stores, hotels, and factories were framed of wood at the time, a factor that contributed to the periodic fires that swept through the city's business district.

Building History

The businessman Dexter Horton (1825-1904) began his eponymous bank in 1870, soon after returning to Seattle,WA, from San Francisco, CA, where he had worked three years as a stock broker. Prior to leaving for CA, Horton had operated a profitable and popular general store in Seattle, a business trusted by customers so much that they brought their wages to him for safe-keeping. While in San Francisco, Horton decided to return north and open a bank, a highly profitable business free from the merchandising headaches of a general store.

He erected a wood-frame building on the northwest corner of 1st Avenue South and Washington Street in 1870, and replaced it with this more imposing brick and stone iteration in 1875. The second brick structure had one-story, a rusticated stone facade and arched openings, with two windows flanking a central front door.

In 1876, the Dexter Horton and Company Bank was the only bank listed in the Business Directory of the City of Seattle for the Year 1876. It operated on the corner of Commercial Street (later 1st Avenue South) and Washington Street. (See Kirk C. Ward, Business Directory of the City of Seattle for the Year 1876, (Seattle: B.L. Northrup, Printer, 1876), p. 80.)

Demolition

The Dexter Horton Bank #2 was destroyed in the Seattle Fire of 06/06/1889. Its vault and safe remained after the fire, despite the roof and interior furnishings having been burned. The bank used the building's charred frame after the fire for a temporary location until a new, larger bank was erected on the site. (See Dorpat Lomont Sherrard.com, "Seattle Now & Then: Inside Dexter Horton's Bank, 1882," accessed 12/19/2020.)

PCAD id: 18086