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Overview

Erected in 1911, the steel-framed New Richmond Hotel, like the nearby Frye Hotel, catered to the increasing number of tourists visiting Seattle and the Pacific Northwest. This influx of visitors spiked just before this in 1909 when the city and region put on the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition (AYPE). The building functioned as a US Army hospital and hotel during World War II, and gradually declined following the war. It was later renovated and rechristened the "Addison on Fourth Apartments."

Building History

Canadian-born developer Robert Cummings McCormick (born c. 08/1852 in Canada-d. 11/18/1921 in Seattle, WA ) commissioned the Seattle architectural firm of Augustus Warren Gould (1872-1922) and Edouard Frere Champney (1874-1929) to design this nine-story hotel with a huge cornice, modern plumbing and fireproofing and Chicago windows. constreuction began in 04/1910 and the hotel initiated operations in 01/1911, just after the opening of the nearby King Street and Union Railroad Depots. The New Richmond, located at 308 4th Avenue South (also 501 1/2 South Main Street), contained 320 rooms, most with baths, serving mainly tourists and new arrivals in competition with Bebb and Mendel's nearby Louisa C. Frye Hotel (1911) at 223 Yesler Way. The New Richmond aimed at a wealthier, white clientele, compared to other neighboring hotels catering to working class and Asian-American customers. McCormick called it the New Richmond Hotel in honor of his birthplace New Richmond, QC, a town on the Gaspé Peninsula, about 25 miles from Dalhousie, NB.

Gould and Champney sued McCormick and his wife, Brownie Robinson McCormick, (born 09/01/1876 in Cheyenne, WY-d. 12/30/1971 in Seattle, WA) for recovery of the firm's full fee after it was dismissed early in the construction supervision process. According to the case summary, they entered into a contract with the McCormicks on 08/04/1909. Construction cost for the New Richmond Hotel was approximately $325,000. On or about 08/18/1910, McCormick dismissed the architects when construction had been about one-third completed, and finished the New Richmond without engaging any other architects. Gould and Champney initiated their law suit on 12/23/1910. The Supreme Court of WA upheld Gould and Champney's claim to compensation of about $6,750, holding that there was no "reasonable ground for their dismissal" and the architects had a right to fulfill the terms of their contract (and expect full remuneration) because there was no evidence of their "wrong-doing or incompetency." (See "Gould et al., v. McCormick et ux., Supreme Court of Washington, 08/19/1913," The Pacific Reporter, Vol. 134, p. 676-680) R.C. McCormick continued running the hotel in 1917, but died in 1921. Thereafter, ownership passed to another group.

During its first two decades of existence, the hotel remained busy, with many groups holding regular meetings and conventions there. Competition increased by the mid-to-late 1920s and the hotel's fortune likely wained by 1930. The hotel's proximity to King Street and Union Stations became less of a drawing card over time.

In 1924, the management team included: S. W. Thurston, president; H. E. Maltby, vice-president; and Louis Lucas, assistant general manager. Maltby and Thurston Hotels managed other hotels and apartment hotels in Seattle at this time, including the Georgian and Georgian Annex, Windsor Apartments, McKay Apartments and the Waldort Hermosa Apartments. As was typical during the racial intolerance and anti-communist paranoia of the early 1920s, the hotel advertised that it was "All American Owned," and that it had "All White Help." (See See WorthPoint.com, "1924 New Richmond Hotel Seattle, WA brochure map, Anti-Chinese 'All White Help,'" accesed 02/15/2023.)

Louis Lucas was the New Richmond Hotel's manager in 1930. (See "New Richmond Hotel," (classified ad), Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 10/13/1930, p. 21.)

Like the Frye Hotel, the New Richmond was taken over by the military during World War II; the US Army transformed the facility into a hospital and housing for military families. Pioneer Square became a mostly deserted land of skid-row saloons and flophouses by the 1960s, and the New Richmond, by then called the "Down Town Hotel Apartments," served a sparse, low-income clientele.

The building was known as the "New Richmond Hotel" from its opening until about 1965. Since then it has had a number of names, including Down Town Hotel Apartments, Downtowner Hotel, and most recently Addison on Fourth Apartments.

Developers Martin and Howard Selig bought the building and created low-cost FHA-financed apartments, lowering the number of units from the original 320 to about 240.

Building Notes

Originally, approximately 200 of the 320 rooms in the New Richmond Hotel had their own baths. Rates for rooms without baths ranged from $1,00 and up, while rooms with baths cost $2.00 and up. By 1924, 75% of the 320 rooms had baths. Room rates had actually decreased in cost by 1930 at the beginning of the Depression. For rooms without bath, the cost was $5 per week, with baths, $9 per week. (See "New Richmond Hotel," (classified ad), Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 10/13/1930, p. 21.)

Gould and Champney configured the hotel in a U-shape, a common-plan type for hotels of this time. The form enabled a maximum number of rooms to have windows to allow in sunlight and fresh air. Additionally, windows made it possible for some guests to have an escape route in the case of fire. The New Richmond, like most hotels of its time, billed itself as "fireproof" when it opened. This claim was meant to soothe potential guests who were jittery about the period's numerous hotel fires.

The New Richmond Cafe operated at 314 4th Avenue South on the main floor of the hotel in 1919/ (See "New Richmond Cafe," (advertisement), Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 10/18/1919, p. 11.)

In 1935, a long vertical "blade" sign reading "New Richmond Hotel," hung outside the building's front facade between the second and fourth floors. The hotel occupied Lots 1 and 2, Block 28 of Maynard's Addition in Pioneer Square.

Discussion was made in 1937 to demolish the New Richmond Hotel and erect a $2 million terminal post office. An article appeared in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer: "Provision for erection in Seattle of two new federal buildings, costing together $2,225,000, was contained last night in a house appropriations committee list, the Associated Press reported from Washington, D.C. The list presupposed the expenditure of seventy million dollars on a public building program throughout the country. The two Seattle buildings planned are a new terminal postoffice, to cost two million dollars, and a nurses' home for the Marine Hospital, to cost $225,000. A $75,000 postoffice building for Kirkland is also included. The terminal station in Seattle has long been sought, the city's present terminal facilities being sadly inadequate. At the last mention of the project, the postoffice department had two sites under consideration--the present site and the ground now occupied by the New Richmond Hotel opposite the Union Depot." (See "Seattle May Get 2 U.S. Buildings," Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 08/17/1937, p. 3.) The post office was never erected on the New Richmond Hotel site.

In its classified ads of 1947 and 1952-1953, management called the New Richmond Hotel's rooms both 'beautifully refurnished," and "newly decorated." (See "New Richmond Hotel," (classfied ad), Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 10/14/1947, p. 30 and "Closest to Boeing," (classified ad), Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 11/22/1952, p. 18.)

A hotel auction was held at the New Richmond Hotel for 200 rooms of furniture on 02/06-07/1965. (See "Hotel Auction," (classified ad), Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 02/05/1965, p. 33.)

In 2023, the Addison on Fourth Apartments occupied a 17,270-square-foot (0.40-acre) lot and contained 162,900 gross square feet, 109,400 net.

Alteration

Due to damage suffered in the 1949 Seattle Earthquake, the New Richmond's balustraded parapet was removed. A number of architectural features on other Pioneer Square buildings were taken off (or fell off) after this strong temblor.