| Historic Name: |
Supply Laundry |
Common Name: |
1265 Republican Street/433 Yale Ave. N. |
| Style: |
Commercial, Other - Industrial |
Neighborhood: |
Cascade |
| Built By: |
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Year Built: |
1908+1912+1918+1925+1951-52 |
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| Significance |
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In the opinion of the survey, this property appears to meet the criteria of the National Register of Historic Places. |
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In the opinion of the survey, this property appears to meet the criteria of the Seattle Landmarks Preservation Ordinance. |
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In the opinion of the survey, this property is located in a potential historic districe (National and/or local). |
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This historic property has been formally designated a City of Seattle landmark per the Seattle Landmarks Preservation Ordinance (SMC 25.12). Refer to the webpage listed below for a list of City of Seattle landmarks and additional information regarding this specific property: http://www.seattle.gov/neighborhoods/preservation/landmarks_listing.htm
Originally known as the Supply Laundry Building, it appears to have been originally built by 1908 as a one story building. It is one of four brick buildings shown and named on a Baist Map of Seattle which was published in 1908. (Two of the other buildings are extant: the Jensen Block (1906) and the Grandview (1907), both brick veneer apartment buildings. The fourth building is the Cascade School, built in 1894 and demolished in the 1950s). The Supply Laundry building’s recorded completion date in King County records is, however, 1912. By around 1918, the second story had been added, with many of the features still seen today on the Yale Ave. N. and Republican Street elevations (east and north elevations). A few differences: the wide windows of the Republican Street elevation used to be subdivided into four double hung four over four windows. Parapets of east and north elevations used to rise toward the center of the façade, in rectangular increments, on which were attached signs for the “Supply Laundry Company,” the first owner of the building. The delicatessen storefront on the northeast corner dates from 1982. Other additions on the alley side, including the stack, date from 1925 (Max van House, Architect), and two other alley additions, by architects Lamont and Fey, from 1951 and 1952. The firm of Nickum. Lamont and Fey were probably responsible for the entry stair on Republican St in 1960. Even though it has been a working laundry building since around 1908 to at least the 1980s, the building’s appearance is reasonably intact. As an early industrial brick building which uses high style techniques to create two well designed facades, it has architectural significance. Its repeated bays and buttressing and the careful but simple ornamental detailing along the top of its parapet present an especially powerful image. Its east elevation and its stack in particular are easily identifiable features in the Cascade neighborhood. The building began as the main building for Supply Laundry and by 1947, was the “New Richmond Laundry, Plant No.2” An electrical permit granted in 1985 indicates that the laundry was still under the ownership of “New Richmond Laundry Supply.” By 2000, although it was still under New Richmond Laundry Supply ownership, a permit was granted to convert a portion of it for daycare/school use, presumably as part of the Spruce Street School in the adjacent 409 Yale Avenue North. Like the New Richmond Laundry Building, it suggests the extent to which laundry buildings filled the Cascade area. In addition, this building is associated with the famous and ultimately successful Seattle “Laundry Girls’ Strike” of June1917. Before the strike, Supply Laundry, along with a several other Seattle laundries, had formed part of the anti-union “Seattle Laundry Owners’ Club.” The work conditions for female laundry workers were particularly poor and union members had recently been threatened with dismissal. By the end of the strike in early July of 1917, previous laws requiring an eight hour workday and the minimum wage were enforced and the laundry workers gained a wage increase. Full union recognition and a closed shop were also granted.
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| Appearance |
| Built in increments beginning in 1908, this a two story brick building with street facades fronting on Yale Avenue North and Republican Street. The plan appears rectangular, but additions along the west facing alley create a series of jogs, making it irregular. The roof is flat with a parapet, defined by a series of corbelled horizontal bands, made up of small bricks, including a row of brick dentils. One of the most distinctive elements of the east elevation on Yale Avenue N. is the row of eight similar bays, set between brick buttresses. A typical bay has three window openings topped by segmental arches on the second floor over three similar openings on the ground floor, with a smaller circular opening over the central opening. In a few cases - often early in the history of the building - the bottom windows were bricked in and replaced by a plain door opening, but the overall impression remains. The Yale elevation is terminated on the north side by a ninth bay, consisting of a wide rectangular window over a storefront window. Turning the corner onto the Republican elevation, the top floor has six wide rectangular windows on the second floor over similar low rectangular windows on the ground floor. Another distinctive feature of the building is the brick stack, which rises up from the alley and can be seen from many parts of Cascade. |
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| Status: |
Yes - Inventory |
| Classication: |
Building |
District Status: |
INV |
| Cladding(s): |
Brick - Common Bond |
Foundation(s): |
Concrete - Poured |
| Roof Type(s): |
Flat with Parapet |
Roof Material(s): |
Other |
| Building Type: |
Commercial/Trade - Warehouse |
Plan: |
E-Shaped |
| Structural System: |
Masonry - Unreinforced |
No. of Stories: |
two |
| Unit Theme(s): |
Architecture/Landscape Architecture, Manufacturing/Industry, Social Movements & Organizations |
| Integrity |
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Changes to Plan: |
Slight |
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Changes to Original Cladding: |
Slight |
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Storefront: |
Moderate |
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Changes to Windows: |
Moderate |
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| Major Bibliographic References |
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City of Seattle DCLU Microfilm Records.
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King County Property Record Card (c. 1938-1972), Washington State Archives.
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Boyle, Susan (Boyle Wagoner Architects),“The New Richmond Supply Laundry/Metropolitan Laundry,” Seattle Landmark Nomination, 1999.
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Adair, Karen Elizabeth, Organized Women Workers in Seattle 1900-1918, (M.A. Thesis, University of Washington), 1990.
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Seattle Union Record, June 30, 1917.
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Lange, Greg, Chief Researcher, "Seattle Empire Laundry," Seattle Landmark Nomination, 1998.
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