Grand Pacific Hotel
- Style
- Richardsonian Romanesque
- City
- Seattle, WA
- Collection
- pioneer square romanesque
The Grand Pacific Hotel at 1115-1117 1st Avenue began life as the Starr Building, designed in July 1889 and built in 1890 during the construction boom that followed the Great Seattle Fire. Though drawn up as an office building, it functioned almost immediately as a single-room-occupancy hotel — first as the Ye Kenilworth Inn in the 1890s, then refurnished and reopened in 1900 under its current name, likely borrowed from a recently rebuilt Chicago hotel of the same name.
the building
Klondike connections. During the Yukon Gold Rush the hotel housed traveling miners alongside the offices of the Seattle Woolen Mill, an important outfitter supplying gear for the Klondike.
Also called the California Block. The building has gone by several names over its life — first the Starr Building, then sometimes the California Block, before settling into its current identity as the Grand Pacific Hotel.
the style
Built of brick and stone across four stories, the Grand Pacific Hotel is a rare surviving example of Richardsonian Romanesque architecture outside the concentration of the style found in Pioneer Square.
More on Richardsonian Romanesquesignificance
The Grand Pacific Hotel is individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
nearby
- Liggett/4th and Pike Building
- 1411 Fourth Avenue Building
- Northern Bank and Trust/Seaboard Building
- Rainier Tower
- Cobb Building
- Shafer Building/6th and Pine Building