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Overview

The architectural firm, John Graham and Company, designed this five-story department store originally for the Fraser-Paterson Company. The new department store was finished in 1930, an inopportune time at the beginning of the Depression. The Fraser-Paterson Company operated in this space only until 1933, when it closed.

Building History

This was the second location of the Seattle-based Fraser-Paterson Department Store. The first had operated between 1912 and 1930 at the corner of 2nd Avenue and University Street, in the old Stone, Fisher and Lane Dry Goods Store location.

The owners of Fraser-Paterson undertook a gamble when they decided to build a larger location on the site of the former Bon Marche Department Store #2, during the Depression. Construction occurred while the Stock Market Crash occurred, but by then the new building was already too far along to cancel. Don Wright, a columnist for the Seattle Times, wrote a brief history of the Fraser-Paterson Store #2 in 1966: "The locally financed department store was built within a year of the 1929 'crash' and gained national attention. The Fraser-Patterson store was an answer to President Herbert Hoover's depression plea, 'Build Now,' and on opening day it was bathed in floodlights illuminated by a telegraph hook up with the White House itself. Alas, in spite of the fanfare and a liberal-credit plan, the department store closed its doors two years, four months later. ...Carew & Shaw took over the premises in 1934, succeeded by Nordhoff & Moore. Penney's leased the building in 1939 and purchased it outright the next year." (See Don Wright, "Times Troubleshooter," Seattle Times, 10/05/1966, p. 19.) As noted by Wright, two other retailers, Carew and Shaw and Nordhoff and Moore, occupied the ill-fated building before national giant J.C. Penney took on the location in 1939.

The Fraser-Paterson Company operated at this location for about three years, before falling victim to the economic crash. The store closed on Saturday 01/28/1933. (See "Charm Staff Goes to MacDougall," Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 01/29/1933, p. 8HH.) In 1933, the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company of Milwaukee, WI, owned the building at 1419-1435 2nd Avenue in Seattle. On 08/21/1933, a real estate transfer transferred titles of the Fraser-Paterson Store and the Trimble Square Building at Westlake Avenue and Olive Way transferred to the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company. (See "Receivership Demanded for Trimble Firm," Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 09/08/1933, p. 10H.)

During Christmas time 1933, a group of volunteer women sold craft items made by jobless city residents in the defunct Fraser-Paterson Store. A Seattle Post-Intelligencer story recounted: "Managed by a volunteer committee of women, headed by Miss Helena Robbins, a Home Arts and Craft Shop, where unemployed may sell articles of their own handicraft, has been opened in the former Fraser-Paterson store near the main Second Ave. entrance and will be continued through the holidays. The object of the store is to find a market for Christmas trinkets, weaving, hand-painted articles and embroidery, made by unemployed and no selling charge will be made." (See "Craft Shop To Sell Articles Made by Jobless," Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 12/06/1933, p. H6.)

Built on the site of the Bon Marche Department Store #2, on the southwest corner of 2nd Avenue and Pike Street; the J.C. Penney Department store chain operated this outlet from about 1933 until 1982. (A previous Downtown J.C. Penney Department Store #1 operated on the northwest corner of 2nd and Union in 1931. See "It Pays to Shop at Penneys!" [advertisement], Seattle Daily Times, 11/12/1931 p. 11.) Its closure in the early '80s precipitated the decline of this portion of Downtown Seattle. One merchant in this area, Joe Fuss, of Joe's Bargain Mart, stated in 1986: "Over the years [since 1950] I've seen the area [shopping area near Pike Place Market] change drastically--from blue collar to wino. Penney's closing at Second and Pike has made the biggest difference." (See "Closing of TJ's Signals the End of a Downtown Era," Seattle Post-Intelligencer, published 1986, the article was accessible at <http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/archives/1986/8601270205.asp> accessed 01/12/2008. The article may have dated from 01/27/1986.) According to a former Penney's administrator quoted in the Seattle Times, this store closed because of the antiquated nature of the facility: " 'The building was a conglomerate of three other stores, an old building that was hard to maintain,'" says J. Lynn Dunkley, retired JCPenney district manager. '(And) we were no longer in the retail core.'" The core had moved a few blocks north and east, to the vicinity of 5th/6th Avenues and Pine Street, where the Frederick and Nelson and Nordstrom Department Stores operated. (SeeSeattle Times, accessed 08/16/2010.)

One author, Clark Humphrey, indicated that this location on the southwest corner of 2nd Avenue and Pike Street was the J.C. Penney department store chain's best selling branch. (See Clark Humphrey, Vanishing Seattle, [Charleston, SC: Arcadia Press, 2006], p. 15.) Humphrey noted that James Cash Penney himself would visit the store, sometimes with his friend, Joshua Green, who owned a large office/retail building a block away on 4th Avenue.

In 1983, the Seattle Art Museum (SAM) received the parcel on which the Penney's Department Store stood as a donation; SAM decided that it was not a suitable site on which to build a larger museum, (it was seeking to expand beyond its Volunteer Park location) and sold it to the developers of the Newmark Condominium Tower. Eventually, SAM built on land at 1300 1st Avenue.

Building Notes

Graham designed the building to have a reinforced concrete exterior with granite base. It had a reinforced-concrete frame resting on a concrete foundation. Its roof was sheathed by a coating of tar and gravel. Each floor plate measured 108 feet x 176 feet, 5 and 1/4 inches. This comes to approximately 19,062 square feet per floor (for 5 floors and basement) and an 1,544-square-foot sub-basement, equalling 115,916 total square feet.

The store had five floors with a basement and a 1,544-square-foot sub-basement. It came equipped with 5 Otis manual passenger elevators, 1 employee elevator and 1 freight elevator. The first floor had concrete and terrazzo floors. The heights of the floors were as follows: basement, 15 feet; 1st floor, 19 feet, 3 inches; 2nd floor, 15 feet; 3rd floor, 14 feet; 4th floor, 14 feet; 5th floor, 13 feet. All floors had sprinklers.

Alteration

According to King County records, a 7,920-square-foot balcony with two sets of terrazzo stairs were built beginning on 01/17/1939. New wiring was added under one side of the balcony. At this time, new stairs were constructed from the first floor to the basement with a wide iron rail and oak cap. A new elevator was added from the basement to the 5th floor. One passenger elevator and one freight elevator were extended to serve between the 5th and 6th (roof) floors.

The J.C. Penney Department Store underwent significant interior remodeling in 1963.

Demolition

The J.C. Penney Store was razed in 1989 to make room for the Newmark Mall and Condominium Tower. Just after the demolition, architectural historian Lawrence Kreisman wrote in 1990 in the Seattle Times: "John Graham Sr. designed the Fraser-Patteson Department Store (later J.C. Penney) in 1930 with the natural wonders of the Northwest in mind. The facade expresses vertically the ground cover, streams and rivers; a horizontal frieze suggests the shores of Puget Sound and the evergreen forests; crowning the tops of pilasters and the parapet of the building are eagles with outspread wings. Sadly, this evocative and original depiction of the Northwest - and, in fact, the entire building - was recently demolished." (See Lawrence Kreisman, "Northwest Living Nature In Architecture -- Seattle Buildings Wear Waves of Creature Profiles," Seattle Times, 01/14/1990,Accessed 02/01/2011)

PCAD id: 6237