12/16/2008

City of Seattle, Department of Neighborhoods

"William Rankin Ballard (1847-1929), a prominent Seattle business leader who in 1883 also founded the new town of Ballard, (now a neighborhood of Seattle proper), commissioned the building for the newly formed Seattle National Bank. Ballard and the Seattle National Bank investors wanted the building to be the finest business block in Seattle. The building shows the influence of Richardsonian Romanesque architecture. An April 30, 1890 Seattle Post-Intelligencer article wrote: 'The exterior of the building will be Romanesque in style and nothing but pressed brick, stone and terra cotta will be used. The corner will be rounded and the whole building will present as fine an appearance as any other building in the Northwest.'”