PCAD - Rengstorff Building, Pioneer Square, Seattle, WA

AKA: Rengstorff Block, Pioneer Square, Seattle, WA; Downs Building, Pioneer Square, Seattle, WA

Structure Type: built works - commercial buildings - office buildings; built works - commercial buildings - stores

Presentation drawing for the Rengstorff Building, Seattle, 1889; from the University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections Division

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707 2nd Avenue
Pioneer Square, Seattle, WA 98104

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The Rengstorff Building was located on 2nd Avenue, between Cherry and Columbia Streets; its storefronts had the numbers 707-711 2nd Avenue.

Building History

Prolific Seattle architect Elmer H. Fisher provided the design for the Rengstorff Building just after the devastating Seattle Fire of 06/06/1889.

Building Notes

According to architectural historians Jeffrey Ochsner and Dennis Andersen, "Some works by Fisher seem much more relatedto his pre-fire designs. For example, his Rengstorff Building (1889-1890, destroyed), later called the Downs Block, on Second, between Cherry and Columbia, featured a central entrance bay topped by a high pediment and included a mix of detailing with round arches only at the fourth floor." (See Jeffrey Karl Ochsner and Dennis A. Andersen, Distant Corner Seattle Architects and the Legacy of H.H. Richardson, [Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2003]. p. 358, note #15.)

Demolished. The Rengstorff Building was razed in 07/1937.

PCAD id: 5153

Rengstorff Building, Pioneer Square, Seattle, WA (1889-1890) demolished