Sorrento Hotel
- Year
- 1909
- City
- Seattle, WA
Hotel Sorrento opened in 1909, just ahead of the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, developed by Seattle clothier Samuel Rosenberg in an Italian oasis style. The hotel struggled financially almost immediately, and in 1910 Rosenberg traded it away entirely — for a 240-acre orchard in Oregon's Rogue River Valley.
the building
Rookwood fireplace. The Fireside Room's fireplace surround is composed of Rookwood tile, among the hotel's most noted original architectural features.
Traded for an orchard. When Rosenberg swapped the hotel for Oregon orchard land in 1910, his sons Harry and David took over managing it — and later built the Harry & David fruit business on those same pear trees.
the style
Hotel Sorrento is built in an Italian oasis style, an ornamental treatment relatively unusual among Seattle's early hotels.
significance
The Malone family bought the hotel in the 1980s and fully renovated it. It is a Seattle City Landmark and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2021.
nearby
- St James Cathedral, Rectory / Site
- Town Hall Seattle (Fourth Church of Christ, Scientist)
- Stimson/Green House
- William Kenzo Nakamura United States Courthouse
- YWCA Building
- Rainier Club