OpenStreetMap (new tab)

Google Map (new tab)

Google Streetview (new tab)

Overview

This three-story, brick building, financed by a ship's captain, J.H. Marshall, originally housed a wholesale business on its first floor and the J and H Hotel on the upper two stories. By 1897, the J and M Cafe and Cardroom replaced the wholesaler in the storefront at 201 1st Avenue South, and has operated--save for a brief bankruptcy period c. 2009--until the present, making it one of Seattle's oldest businesses.

Building History

The Seattle architectural firm of Comstock and Troetsche designed this investment property for the Brunswick, ME-born mariner, John Holton Marshall (1845-1905), a veteran of the Union Navy during the Civil War , who sailed to various exotic ports during his military and merchant marine career, including the West Indies, New Zealand (where he participated in the 1868 gold rush there), and South America. By 1870, he migrated to the Pacific Coast, piloting two ships, the "Dashing Wave" and steamer "Northern Pacific," often between San Francisco and Seattle. After sailing to South America and other Pacific ports of call in 1875, he settled in Seattle, where he became a successful real estate investor. Sometime during the Recession of 1882-1885 (brought about by a national slowdown of railroad construction), he sold most of his Seattle holdings to travel to Europe, but returned to reside in San Diego, CA, where he lived for about 20 years. He assembled significant real estate holdings there as he had done in Seattle. Marshall died in Los Angeles where he had moved to live nearby to medical care, but was returned to San Diego to be buried. Marshall married twice, had three step-daughters, but no children of his own. He erected at least two buildings in Seattle, the second after the great fire of 1889.

The J and M Saloon (named for its owners Jamieson and McFarland) began operation in the 1890s at 201 First Avenue South. Prior to this, Jamieson and McFarland had operated another saloon two doors south of this later location. From 1906 until 1916, the business was known as the "J and M Saloon." After Prohibition (which occurred in Seattle in 1916), it was renamed the "J and M Cafe and Cardroom."

In 2007, noise and crowd control became an issue for a number of nightspots in Pioneer Square. Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels sought greater power to regulate bars that habitually violated city noise and behavior standards. Due to debts totaling $1.2 million, the J and M Cafe and Cardroom closed operations in 2009; Skye Belline, Vice-President of Special Assets for the Evergreen Bank, spent $140,000 to buy most items sold at a public auction on 05/21/2009; the auction netted $150,000. The Evergreen Bank had done business with the J and M Cafe since 1972, and it wanted to keep the historic interior furnishings together possibly to allow them to be reassembled at another location.

Building Notes

This masonry building occupied a lot of 6,660 square feet, and contained 25,450 gross square feet.

Alteration

Like the nearby Jackson Building, Seattle architect, Ralph D. Anderson (1924-2010), rehabilitated this masonry commercial block in the 1960s.

PCAD id: 4773