Seattle Historical Sites

Summary for 117 S Main ST S / Parcel ID 5247800365 / Inv #

Historic Name: Superior Candy and Cracker Company? Common Name: Union Trust Company Annex Style: Commercial, Italian - Italian Renaissance Neighborhood: Pioneer Square Built By: Year Built: 1902   Significance In the opinion of the survey, this property is located in a potential historic districe (National and/or local). Built adjacent to the corner Union Trust Company Building , this building is extremely close in design to its companion at 119 South Main Street, designed by Skillings and Corner. The use of light brick had been something of a rarity at the time of the construction of the older Union Trust building in the 1890s, although it became more prevalent thereafter. According to Greg Lange and Tim O’Brian, this second building dates from 1900-1901 and was designed for Ernest Thurlow, one of the organizers of the Superior Candy and Cracker Company, which occupied the entire building from 1901 to 1915. During that time, there were five kettles for making candy on the fourth floor. They also state that the architect was not Skillings and Corner, although the design clearly mimics the Skillings and Corner design on the corner of Occidental and Main Street. Ernest Thurlow was a member of the Seattle Fire Department during the Great Fire of 1889. In the late 1890s, he opened the Palace of Sweets, located at Second Avenue and Marion Street. Previous literature including the 1973 thesis by Elizabeth Brians bases the date of this building and the Union Trust on the Tax Assessor’s Record cards which give a date of 1902 for both buildings; however, articles in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer clearly indicate that the older building was designed by Skillings and Corner and completed by 1893. It appears that despite the incredible similarities in design, the buildings were designed at different times by different architects and originally for different owners. The building was renamed the Union Trust Annex in the 1970s. The building retains its original appearance, including all of its original parapet. With 119 S. Main Street, it has a powerful presence on Main Street and anchors the corner of Occidental and Main Street. Along with its neighbor, this was one of the first buildings to be rehabilitated by architect Ralph Anderson, as early as the 1960s. It is also important as an early and successful restoration before the Pioneer Square-Skid Road National Historic District was created.   Appearance 117 S. Main Street, the Union Trust Annex, is located mid-block between the Union Trust Building at 119- S. Main Street and the Globe Building at the southeast corner of First Avenue South and Main Street. Its footprint is 50’ x 120’. Its only façade, fifty feet wide, is toward Main Street and clad in light gray brick, considered “white brick” in 1890s. It is four stories in height and alley walls are of common red brick. Not surprisingly, the design of the façade’s component bays and its detailing are extremely similar to the Union Trust Building, its neighbor at 119 S. Main Street, although there are differences. The similarities are the following: It has two major bays subdivided into three single bays at the ground floor storefront level by the typical, but distinctive cast-iron columns, found on the Union Trust Building. These are square in plan, fluted to three quarters of the way up the shaft and then topped by a motif of raised half circles. Whereas in the neighboring Union Trust Building, each storefront is divided into three bays, corresponding to the three bays of the “major bays” at the upper levels, there is no grouping of the single bays into larger tripartite “major bays” at the upper levels of this façade. As in the Union Trust Building, a belt-course in metal with a running egg-and-dart motif surmounted by a running Greek key motif separates the ground floor level from the upper levels; above this, are single trabeated openings with well-expressed flat arches in brick. The second level is topped by a dentil course and then by the top two levels, which consist of single double-height bays, framed by brick piers, surmounted by circular arches. The capitals of the piers are created in masonry by bands of stretcher bricks and headers set at angles. Arches are also emphasized by corbelled brick bands in a semi-circular pattern. All of this part of the design is identical to the Union Trust Building, but the major difference remains that the bays are not organized into sets of three. There are also differences at the parapet level: Ornamental corbelling along the top of the parapet creates small pointed arches in brick.

Detail for 117 S Main ST S / Parcel ID 5247800365 / Inv #

Status: Yes - Inventory Classication: Building District Status: NR, LR Cladding(s): Brick, Metal Foundation(s): Concrete - Poured Roof Type(s): Flat with Parapet Roof Material(s): Asphalt/Composition, Unknown Building Type: Commercial/Trade - Warehouse Plan: Rectangular Structural System: Masonry - Unreinforced No. of Stories: four Unit Theme(s): Architecture/Landscape Architecture, Commerce Integrity Storefront: Slight Changes to Plan: Intact Changes to Windows: Intact Changes to Original Cladding: Intact Major Bibliographic References Shaping Seattle Architecture: A Historical Guide to the Architects. Jeffrey Karl Ochsner, ed. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1994. Ochsner, Jeffrey and Dennis Andersen. Distant Corner: Seattle Architects and The Legacy of H. H. Richardson. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 2004. Link, Karin, “The Rise of the Urban Center,” in Andrews et al. Pioneer Square: Seattle’s Oldest Neighborhood. Manuscript. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, forthcoming 2005.

Photo collection for 117 S Main ST S / Parcel ID 5247800365 / Inv #

Photo taken Nov 27, 2004