619 WESTERN AVE

Hotel Seattle
Corner of James St. and Yesler Way, looking east, 1911

Photographer : Webster & Stevens
The Hotel Seattle was located near Pioneer Square, which was then the heart of Seattle's business district. The five-story brick and stone building had 200 rooms. It was close to the railroad depots, the docks, and the point where most of the city's streetcar lines started. The hotel was torn down in 1962 to make room for a parking garage. This photo shows the Hotel Seattle at the intersection of Yesler Way, James Street, and First Avenue.

Notes Signs in image: Stanley Electric [...] Co. [...berg] Bros. Cigars. [Harvard?] Dental Parlor. Hotel Seattle. Rubber Stamps and Signs. Dr. Liebig. Dr. Ratcliff. The Bohemian. Olympic Hotel.


HOTEL SEATTLE
Hotel Seattle Corner of James St. and Yesler Way, looking east, 1911 Photographer : Webster & Stevens The Hotel Seattle was located near Pioneer Square, which was then the heart of Seattle's business district. The five-story brick and stone building had 200 rooms. It was close to the railroad depots, the docks, and the point where most of the city's streetcar lines started. The hotel was torn down in 1962 to make room for a parking garage. This photo shows the Hotel Seattle at the intersection of Yesler Way, James Street, and First Avenue. Notes Signs in image: Stanley Electric [...] Co. [...berg] Bros. Cigars. [Harvard?] Dental Parlor. Hotel Seattle. Rubber Stamps and Signs. Dr. Liebig. Dr. Ratcliff. The Bohemian. Olympic Hotel.

Hotel Seattle, Seattle, 1909 Photographer : Webster & Stevens Signs in image: The Mansfield - Modern Rooms 50 Cents. Burnside "Builds [$2.00] Hats" - 3rd & James, 4th & Union. Drexel. Berryman. Collins. Carnation Milk. The Junction. Baxter & Son Plumbing. Table Rock.
On the day of the Great Seattle Fire in 1889, a soot covered John B. Collins hired crews to clean up the building debris of his Occidental Hotel as soon as the embers cooled. Defiantly, he vowed to "show Seattle a bigger and finer building than they ever saw before." He commissioned Stephen Meany, nephew of Edmond Meany (historian and once president of the University of Washington), to design a new hotel. Judging by contemporary newspaper accounts, he was in great demand as a hotel designer. News concerning the rebuilding of the Occidental Hotel, later known as the Seattle Hotel, appeared regularly in the Post Intelligencer of 1889. Also a trapezoidal in plan , this stately building was notable for its well-proportioned bays with repeated arched windows and its enterance, dramatically set at the intersection of James Street and Yesler Way. The hotel stood until 1962. The destruction of this once-beautiful building and its replacement by the infamous "Sinking Ship" garage spurred the creation of the Pioneer Square Historic District in 1970.