| Historic Name: |
Pioneer Building |
Common Name: |
Pioneer Building |
| Style: |
Queen Anne - Richardsonian Romanesque |
Neighborhood: |
Pioneer Square |
| Built By: |
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Year Built: |
1892 |
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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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The Pioneer Building is also listed on the National Register as part of a smaller grouping which includes the Pergola and the Totem Pole, all located on Pioneer Place.
The Pioneer Building was commissioned in 1889 by mill owner and entrepreneur Henry Yesler and designed by Elmer Fisher. The building has a grid composition and includes an amazing variety of window openings and decorative elements, all typical of Victorian buildings; but Elmer Fisher himself described the building in a October 1889 article in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer as “Romanesque, after the great architect of America, Mr. Richardson.” It owes a debt to both traditions and is typical of buildings constructed right after the Fire of 1889, but it stands out in the variety of its detailing and the richness of its interior. Completed in 1892, the Pioneer Building won an award from the American Institute of Architects for “being the finest building West of Chicago.”
Henry Yesler was one of Seattle’s earliest and founding settlers, and an influential early Seattle entrepreneur, guiding force and owner of prime real estate in the area around the Public Square and north of Yesler Way. He owned the Puget Sound’s first steam operated mill and ran a grist mill as well as a general store. Two of the four mills he owned were located west of the site of the present Mutual Life Building. Yesler also commissioned the Mutual Life Building (formerly the “Yesler Building” in Fisher and Yesler’s day) and the Yesler Building (formerly the Bank of Commerce Building) both by Fisher and located across Pioneer Place.
The Pioneer Building itself was briefly at the vortex of a controversy between Yesler and the Seattle’s City Council over the 1889 project to raise and widen the streets. Quoted at length in the July 1, 1889 issue of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Yesler complained about the hardships created by the replatting of the streets near his properties. He had intended to complete the Pioneer Building, “as fast as men and money should accomplish the work,” he stated, but was held up by the decision to raise and widen the streets. He planned to sue the City over this issue. The upshot, of course, is that the streets were raised and widened and the construction of the Pioneer Building was completed to much acclaim. By 1891, though, the interior finishes to the building, the beautiful lobby wainscoting, for instance, were still being added.
Elmer Fisher produced an incredible number of buildings, especially between 1889 and 1891 and is considered the most prolific of the post-fire architects; but his account of his birth in Scotland in 1840, arrival in Massachusetts at age 17 and architectural apprenticeship in Worcester, Massachusetts now appears to be untrue or at least completely uncorroborated. It is known that he came to the Pacific Northwest in 1886 and designed buildings in Vancouver, Victoria and Port Townsend, before coming to Seattle in 1889. Despite the number of buildings he designed in the former “burnt district,” his most well-known work in Seattle is the Pioneer Building. By 1891, despite the accolades the Pioneer Building received in 1892, he had abandoned his career as an architect to run the Abbott Hotel in Seattle, which he had also designed and built.
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| Appearance |
| The Pioneer Building, designed by Elmer Fisher, consists of six floors, with brick exterior walls and stone and terra cotta trim. The building’s design is marked by its Victorian composition which divides it into almost discrete vertical bays, set off by pilasters, with horizontal bands of brick dividing up these areas at various floor levels. The building also shows the influence of the Richardsonian Romanesque: the main and side entrances are marked by heavy masonry arches in Bellingham Bay sandstone; but these are accentuated by projecting cast-iron bay windows above them. The entire building is marked by a very spirited use of window openings, some arched, some trabeated and in several sizes. The base of the building is generally in ashlar cut sandstone. Above this, the walls are clad in red brick, with sandstone and terra cotta trim.
The following is a more detailed description. Toward the center of the Pioneer Place façade, the main, low slung arched entrance is accentuated by pilasters made of blocks of rough hewn Bellingham Bay sandstone, which rise to the top of the building and once ended in a tower, which has since been demolished. Supporting the entry arch itself, on each side, are four small engaged pink polished granite columns, with stone capitals that blend together and are ornamented with Romanesque Revival floral motifs. Above the entrance, still as part of the base level of the building, are four small arched openings. A terra cotta egg-and-dart belt-course set between floral capitals separates the base level of the building from the upper floors. The central bay consists of a projecting cast-iron bay, which at its first level has arched openings, at its second level, rectangular openings and at the third and top level, an arched central opening divided into two, with two single arched openings set to each side of it. The projecting bay therefore ends at the fifth level. At the sixth level, there are three trabeated openings in red sandstone and above them in arched lettering the words: “ Pioneer Building” with, below it, a basket weave medallion, surrounded by decorative swirls, set within a semi-circular shape
Still facing Pioneer Place, to each side of the central entry bay, the second level bays are distinguished by trabeated openings with terra cotta ornamentation in the spandrels above them. Window openings are in groups of three with a single window opening set to each side of the trio of window openings. At the third level, the openings follow the same pattern, but are arched. This is topped by a terra cotta belt-course with leaf patterns. The fourth and fifth floors have double-height bays, each topped by a large central arch (corresponding to the three central windows of the floors below), with a thinner opening to each side. Finally, the sixth floor bays consist of four trabeated openings with red sandstone lintels and separated by red sandstone columns with floral capitals. All of this is then topped by an array of ornamentation, including an egg-and-dart belt course, spandrels with decorated panels and a generous cornice.
There is a projecting cast-iron corner bay between First Avenue and James Street. In plan, the bay approaches a semi-circular shape. The first and second levels of the bay have rectangular openings, the third level arched openings and the fourth level, rectangular openings separated by short columns. In comparison to the First Avenue/ Pioneer Place elevation, the James Street elevation is more symmetrical. A central bay similar to the corner bay starts from the second floor. It has rectangular openings at three levels above the first level of the bay, topped by a level of arched openings. There are two sets of single window openings to each side of the central bay, then two sets of tripartite bays, each side topped at the fifth level by wide arched openings subdivided into 3. At sixth level, there are trabeated windows in red sandstone separated by double engaged colonettes. |
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| Status: |
Yes - Inventory |
| Classication: |
Building |
District Status: |
NR, LR |
| Cladding(s): |
Brick, Metal, Stone - Ashlar/cut, Terra cotta |
Foundation(s): |
Concrete - Poured |
| Roof Type(s): |
Flat with Parapet |
Roof Material(s): |
Asphalt/Composition |
| Building Type: |
Commercial/Trade - Professional |
Plan: |
Rectangular |
| Structural System: |
Masonry - Unreinforced |
No. of Stories: |
six |
| Unit Theme(s): |
Architecture/Landscape Architecture, Commerce, Community Planning/Development, Manufacturing/Industry |
| Integrity |
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Changes to Windows: |
Intact |
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Changes to Original Cladding: |
Intact |
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Changes to Plan: |
Intact |
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| Major Bibliographic References |
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Luxton, Donald, editor,, Building the West: the Early Architects of British Columbia. Vancouver B.C.: Talonbooks, 2003, 244-5.
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Ochsner, Jeffrey and Dennis Andersen. Distant Corner: Seattle Architects and The Legacy of H. H. Richardson. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 2004.
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Ochsner, Jeffrey and Dennis Andersen. Distant Corner: Seattle Architects and The Legacy of H. H. Richardson. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 2004.
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