| Historic Name: |
Nugent Block and Considine Block |
Common Name: |
Barney's Loans |
| Style: |
Queen Anne - Richardsonian Romanesque |
Neighborhood: |
Pioneer Square |
| Built By: |
|
Year Built: |
1890 |
| |
| Significance |
|
In the opinion of the survey, this property is located in a potential historic districe (National and/or local). |
|
|
This building was constructed in 1890 as a joint block for Captain James Nugent and for John Considine. The design and detailing – the gridded Victorian composition and the use of brick corbelling as the only ornament are typical of buildings erected in the “burnt district” right after the Fire of 1889. The Second Avenue Extension façade, in particular, has a surprising amount of architectural detailing, despite the loss of its upper two floors. Like many of the buildings on Second Avenue Extension between Yesler to Washington Street, it was once a taller building. The first floor was topped by two floors with segmental arched openings arranged in groups of three on Second Avenue and groups of two on Washington Street. Despite the loss of the upper floors, the building contributes architecturally to Pioneer Square-Skid Road National Historic District, particularly on Second Avenue Extension South.
This kind of joint block, often designed by the same architect, with similar detailing for the primary facades was not uncommon, particularly right after the Fire of 1889. The Delmar, or former Terry-Kittinger Block and 116-118 S Washington are other examples, as is the Globe Building (the former Marshall-Walker Building). In this case, Captain Nugent leased the property from Robert Abrams for a fifteen year period, during which he constructed his portion of the building. At the end of the lease in 1904, the building ownership reverted to Abrams, who did not compensate Nugent for the construction of the building. Considine also leased from Abrams to construct his portion of the building.
Beginning with John Considine, this building, over time, has been associated with some of the more risqué aspects of the history of the Pioneer Square Historic District. In the basement below the current Double Header Bar, from 1890 to 1904, John Considine ran his People’s Theater, known for the “box houses,” which provided both “theatrical” entertainment such as magic acts, singing, dancing, minstrel shows, as well as sexual services. The People’s Theater is also known for showing a silent film clip of the Corbett-FitzSimmons fight as early as the late 1890s. Considine is also famous for shooting Seattle police chief William Meredith, after the later pursued him into the H. K. Owens/ Metropole Building and tried to kill him with a sawed off shot gun. Considine was found innocent of the murder. (See entry on the H. K. Owens/ Metropole Building, Field No, 98, for more details on this episode).
The Double Header itself was founded in 1934 and operated as a gay bar, famous for drag shows on the main level. Below it, in the location of John Considine’s People’s Theater, was an after hours venue known officially as the Casino, and unofficially as “Madame Peabody’s Dancing Academy for Young Ladies.”
|
|
| |
| Appearance |
| This building is rectangular in plan, with exterior brick walls. In fact, it is a property originally built as a joint block. It has two one-story primary facades, an east façade on Second Avenue Extension South and a south facade on South Washington Street. A former alley elevation now faces a parking lot to the west. The Second Avenue Extension façade is symmetrically composed around a central arch, which is now closed off with a makeshift wooden door. To each side of it are two bays framed by brick piers with corbel capitals and a decorative corbel band about three and half feet down from the current top of the wall, which runs the length of this elevation. Within each of the side bays is storefront in various configurations, with transom lights (The Double-Header Bar, located to the north of the central arch, for instance, has a lower storefront, with a higher multi-pane transom, while other storefronts are higher with lower transoms). Corbelled ornamentation representing capitals is also used to emphasize the central archway. The Washington Street elevation has seven bays. At the ground level, the first four, (counting from the east), are similar to the standard bay on Second Avenue Extension, combining red brick and storefront, but have been reclad in concrete at the second level. Three bays to the west have detailing similar to the standard bays on Second Avenue Extension. The west elevation consists of a variety of segmental arched openings. |
|
|
| Status: |
Yes - Inventory |
| Classication: |
Building |
District Status: |
NR, LR |
| Cladding(s): |
Brick, Concrete |
Foundation(s): |
Concrete - Poured |
| Roof Type(s): |
Flat with Parapet |
Roof Material(s): |
Asphalt/Composition, Unknown |
| Building Type: |
Recreation and Culture - Theater |
Plan: |
Rectangular |
| Structural System: |
Masonry - Unreinforced |
No. of Stories: |
one |
| Unit Theme(s): |
Architecture/Landscape Architecture, Arts, Commerce |
| Integrity |
|
Storefront: |
Moderate |
|
Changes to Windows: |
Moderate |
|
Changes to Original Cladding: |
Slight |
|
Changes to Plan: |
Intact |
|
| Major Bibliographic References |
|
Andrews, Mildred et al. Pioneer Square: Seattle's Oldest Neighborhood. Manuscript. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, forthcoming 2005.
|
|
Morgan, Murray. Skid Road, An Informal Portrait of Seattle, Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 1995 (first publication 1951).
|
|
King County Tax Assessor Records, ca. 1932-1972.
|
|
Lange, Greg and Tim O’Brian. “Virtual Pioneer Square,” unpublished manuscript, 27 October 1996. City of Seattle, Department of Neighborhoods, Historic Preservation Program files.
|
|
|
