Butterworth Building
- Architect
- John Graham & Company
- City
- Seattle, WA
The Butterworth Building at 1921 First Avenue was built as the Butterworth & Sons mortuary, which moved in in 1903 and stayed until 1923. Designed by John Graham & Company, it was the city's first purpose-built mortuary — as writer Jeannie Yandel later put it, 'the city's first place for comprehensive death-related services from corpse retrieval to coffin sales.'
the building
Split by the hill. Built on a steep slope, the building shows only three stories along First Avenue but a full five stories on the Post Alley side behind it.
An elevator for the dead. The building had the first elevator on the West Coast of the United States, installed specifically to move bodies between floors.
significance
The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places within the Pike Place Public Market Historic District, and has been owned by the McAleese family since 2005. A 1904 account called it 'without question of doubt, the most complete establishment of its kind in the United States.'
nearby
- Josephinum/New Washington Hotel
- Moore Theatre and Hotel Building
- J.S. Graham Store/Doyle Building
- Calhoun Hotel
- Times Square Building
- Northern Bank and Trust/Seaboard Building