| Historic Name: |
Fashioncraft Building / Fashion Craft Building |
Common Name: |
Fairview Club, "Lisa Dupar's Juleps" |
| Style: |
Art Deco, Spanish - Eclectic |
Neighborhood: |
Denny Triangle |
| Built By: |
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Year Built: |
1929 |
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| Significance |
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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 building was designed by Henry Bittman and completed in 1929, the year of the Great Depression. Several projects were also designed and constructed in the Denny Triangle, just prior to the Depression. In fact, during 1928, the Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce continued to write about the particularly high number of building projects planned for Seattle’s Downtown. Articles also discussed the imminent and last phase of the Denny Regrade, which was to occur west of Westlake, north of Denny Way, and very close to this building site. The building combines high style composition and ornament with more utilitarian elements, such as large multi-pane glazing. It employs vaguely Spanish style ornamentation, as well as Art Deco elements and is a typical, but elegant example of Seattle’s early utilitarian buildings. Early records indicate that it was a factory building. More specifically, its design is typical of warehouses, designed by Henry Bittman’s firm.
Bittman’s office seems to have been especially successful in the 1920s, a few years after he became a licensed architect. In the Denny Triangle area itself, other examples of Bittman’s work include the Volker Building (1928), now on the National Register of Historic places and 1906 Boren Avenue (1929). An important client was the Clise Family, which has a well-known association with the general Denny Triangle area. Also among the notable buildings designed by the Bittman firm in Seattle, still standing and reasonably intact are: the Terminal Sales Building (ca. 1923), the Decatur Building (1921), the Olympic Tower (ca. 1929), the Eagles Auditorium (1924-25), and the Hubbel Building (1922). Bittman’s initial education and work experience focused on structural engineering. He attended Cooper Union in New York. He was born in 1882 and grew up in Greenpoint in Brooklyn, New York. He continued to practice until his death in 1953 and by the 1950s, designed in the Modernist style.
Bittman had a wide assortment of clients, and according to historical Tax Assessor records, the building was built for the Schoenfeld Brothers, (although it is noted as “Schoenfield Brothers,”). At least by 1936, the building was topped by a roof sign, which announced that the building was the “Home of Fashion Craft Cravats.” The sign over the main entrance also alludes to “Fashioncraft Building,” so that the “ F C” in the repeated cast stone ornament refers to Fashion Craft neckwear; although currently the building is sometimes described as the Fairview Club, in reference to the current banquet hall/ catering business, housed in the building. The building was consistently occupied by businesses associated with the Schoenfeld family at least until the 1970s. Later architectural drawings indicate that the interior of the building was renovated in 1975 for Brittania Sportswear, a successor of Fashion Craft, also founded and owned by the Schoenfeld concern. The building only became an unrelated “banquet hall,” in 1994 and still serves this function.
The Schoenfeld Brothers are often credited as the founders of Seattle’s modern clothing industry. Brothers Max, Theodore and Herman Schoenfeld, had immigrated with their family from Mandel, 30 miles from Frankfurt (Germany) to Chicago and then to Seattle. They founded Schoenfeld Brothers Incorporated in 1906. Early on, the company sold neckwear under the label “Fashion Craft Cravats” or possibly “Fashion Craft Neckwear.” Fashion Craft (or Fashioncraft) did a thriving business as did many related businesses, later under the umbrella of the Schoenfeld Group. The building was clearly built by them to house their business and continued to be occupied by related business enterprises until the 1990s. In particular, Max Schoenfeld lived to a very old age, continued to work until the age of 105 and died at the age of 108 in 1990.
The building, despite changes to its fenestration, is significant because it is an example of an elegantly designed factory building, with intact brick cladding and distinctive ornament and because of its association with the firm of Henry Bittman. It is also associated with the final phase of the completion of the Denny Regrade, almost at its doorstep. In addition, it is associated with the beginnings of Seattle’s modern clothing industry and the Schoenfeld Brothers’ continuous legacy.
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| Appearance |
| This is a one story building with a basement. The building is sited on a triangular lot, bounded by Denny Street, Fairview Avenue and Boren Avenue. The building plan has the shape of a chamfered triangle: it has three narrower elevations set between three, longer main facades, set parallel to Denny Street and Fairview and Boren Avenues. The structure is concrete, with piers, set at the building perimeter. The piers are mainly clad in light brown brick on the building exterior. Each pier also features a concrete base and signature cast stone ornament, in lieu of a more conventional capital. In general, the building’s exterior cladding is distinguished by a continuous concrete plinth, topped by brick veneer with ornamental cast stone trim. The roof is flat, with a parapet, which is slightly raised over various bays, such as entry bays, or at the top of pilasters.
A typical façade features five wide bays, clad in light brown brick, with wide rectangular glazed openings, which alternate with four narrower bays. The narrower bays contain doorways or narrower glazed openings. The signature cast stone ornament, which has a symmetrical design, features a central shield incised with stylized letters“F C.” Scroll shapes are set symmetrically to each side of the shield; leaf motifs are set symmetrically below the shield and a central shell is set above two symmetrically placed wave shapes set above the shield. Above the central shell, the parapet, also in cast stone, and really part of the cast stone ornament, mimics the curve of the shell and rises above the base level of the parapet. To each side of the cast stone curve and forming part of the parapet, are slightly pointed finials. This design occurs in lieu of capitals at the top of the piers, but also marks the center of the parapet above the intermediary, short angled elevations, set between the main facades.
The bay divisions and ornamentation are repeated consistently throughout the building exterior, with a slight exception for the entry located in the central bay on the Boren Avenue facade. One of the wider bays, (as opposed to one of the alternating, narrow bays), this entry bay features a raised, curved parapet set above its entire width. There is a distinctive, central, cast stone ornament set at the top of the parapet. Virtually rectangular in shape with curved edges, it is distinguished on its face by a border of garland-like motifs and topped by an almost free standing shell, which rises, this time, above the highest point of the segmental curve of the raised parapet. There is also an additional, central, floral motif suspended at the bottom of the rectangle. Below, the entry doorway is set within a flat, cast stone surround, in lieu of the usual brick veneer. The cast stone, which extends almost to the edge of the flanking window openings, is topped by a distinctive curved cornice, which is in the shape of a flat curve. Below the cornice, there is an inscribed shape, which mimics the shape of the curved molding and features the words: “Fashioncraft Building.” Concave curving scroll shapes, set symmetrically under the curved cornice, complete the irregular, but symmetrical shape of the cast stone entry surround.
An historic photo indicates that the main elements of the design, the brick veneer cladding and the sometimes intricate cast stone ornamentation, are remarkably intact; however, the windows, which used to be multi-pane industrial sash, have been changed and it appears that, in the process, the concrete plinth was slightly raised. |
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| Status: |
Yes - Inventory |
| Classication: |
Building |
District Status: |
INV |
| Cladding(s): |
Brick, Concrete, Stone - Cast |
Foundation(s): |
Concrete - Poured |
| Roof Type(s): |
Flat with Parapet |
Roof Material(s): |
Asphalt/Composition |
| Building Type: |
Commercial/Trade - Warehouse |
Plan: |
Triangular |
| Structural System: |
Concrete - Poured |
No. of Stories: |
one |
| Unit Theme(s): |
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| Integrity |
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Changes to Windows: |
Moderate |
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Changes to Original Cladding: |
Slight |
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Changes to Plan: |
Intact |
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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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Polk's Seattle Directories, 1890-1996.
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Shaping Seattle Architecture: A Historical Guide to the Architects. Jeffrey Karl Ochsner, ed. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1994.
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Constantine Angelos, “Max Schoenfeld, 108, A Founder of Clothing-Manufacturing Empire,” Seattle Times, obituary, October 20, 1990, Database available at:
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Lydia S. Aldredge, “Architeaser # 78: The Fashion Craft Building,” The Weekly, September 16, 1987, p 61.
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“Max Schoenfeld dead at 108. (Seattle apparel maker) (Obituary), Daily News Record, October 23, 1990,
Database available at:
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