| Historic Name: |
Padden Block/ Mary McDonald Building/ Bohemian Café/ Eagle Café |
Common Name: |
The Bohemian |
| Style: |
Commercial, Queen Anne - Richardsonian Romanesque |
Neighborhood: |
Pioneer Square |
| Built By: |
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Year Built: |
1890 |
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| Significance |
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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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Situated between the Korn Block of 1889 designed by Elmer Fisher and the former Sanderson Block, now the Merchant’s Café Building, which was designed by W. E. Boone, the building was designed in 1890 by Elmer Fisher. It is thought to have been designed for Mary McDonald, who died in 1898. Early on, it was also known as the Padden Block. Subsequently, it was known for a long time (from about 1910) as the Bohemian Café and then as the Eagle Café. It is a small, simple, utilitarian “filler” building, with the signs of its 1890 construction mainly visible on its upper floors. Despite this, with the Korn Building to the East and the Merchant’s Café Building to the west, the Mary McDonald Building/ Padden Block contributes to the historic fabric of the Pioneer Square-Skid Road National Historic District. It is one of many buildings designed by Fisher and erected after the Fire of June 6, 1889.
Elmer Fisher produced an incredible number of buildings, especially between 1889 and 1891 after the Fire of 1889 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. His most well-known work in Seattle is the Pioneer Building, which he designed for Henry Yesler. 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 |
| This is a three story building with brick walls. It has a high trabeated storefront level, topped by two levels that consist of two vertical recessed bays, with corbelling at the top. Each vertical bay has simple, trabeated window openings. Built as the Padden Building and designed by Elmer Fisher, it is consistent in scale and style with its neighbors, the Korn Building and the Merchant’s Café Building, although it is much simpler. |
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| Status: |
Yes - Inventory |
| Classication: |
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District Status: |
NR, LR |
| Cladding(s): |
Brick |
Foundation(s): |
Concrete - Poured |
| Roof Type(s): |
Flat with Parapet |
Roof Material(s): |
Unknown |
| Building Type: |
Commercial/Trade - Warehouse |
Plan: |
Rectangular |
| Structural System: |
Masonry - Unreinforced |
No. of Stories: |
three |
| Unit Theme(s): |
Architecture/Landscape Architecture, Commerce, Community Planning/Development |
| Integrity |
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Changes to Plan: |
Intact |
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Changes to Windows: |
Intact |
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Storefront: |
Extensive |
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Changes to Original Cladding: |
Slight |
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| Major Bibliographic References |
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Polk's Seattle Directories, 1890-1996.
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Lange, Greg and Tim O’Brian, “Virtual Pioneer Square,” unpublished manuscript, 27 October 1996.
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Ochsner, Jeffrey, “Seeing Richardson in His Time: The Problem of Romanesque Revival.” in M. Meister, editor. H. H. Richardson, the Architect and His Peers and Their Era. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1999.
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