Bell Apartments
- Architect
- Elmer H. Fisher
- City
- Seattle, WA
The Bell Apartments at 2324 1st Avenue in Belltown began as an office building commissioned by Austin Americus Bell, son of pioneer landowner William Nathaniel Bell — but Austin died by suicide in 1889 soon after proposing it, and his widow Eva saw the project through to completion. Architect Elmer H. Fisher, one of the busiest names rebuilding Seattle after the Great Fire, mixed Richardsonian, Gothic, and Italianate details across the facade. By the end of 1890 its 65 unfurnished office suites were already being rented out as apartments instead.
the building
Bell's Folly. Built far from the young city's business core in an underdeveloped, economically depressed stretch of Belltown, the building earned the derisive nickname Bell's Folly. It was meant to anchor a larger development alongside the neighboring Barnes and Hull Buildings, a 1890s push into Belltown that never materialized.
the style
Fisher worked in a blend of Richardsonian, Gothic, and Italianate detailing rather than any single style, typical of the eclectic commercial architecture he produced across Seattle immediately after the 1889 fire.
the architect
Elmer H. Fisher was a notable, prolific Pacific Northwest architect who designed many of Seattle's commercial buildings during the rebuilding boom that followed the Great Seattle Fire.
significance
The building is individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and carries the alternate name the Austin A. Bell Building, after the man whose death preceded its completion.
nearby
- Barnes Building
- Hull Building
- Windham Apartments
- Calhoun Hotel
- Moore Theatre and Hotel Building
- Butterworth Building