| Historic Name: |
Lexington Hotel (N portion) |
Common Name: |
Monterey Hotel |
| Style: |
Art Deco, Commercial |
Neighborhood: |
Pioneer Square |
| Built By: |
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Year Built: |
1909 |
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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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410 2nd Avenue Extension is a three story building with a basement. It mainly has walls of pressed brick, with the south elevation, which is partially visible covered with stucco. The main façade is along Second Avenue Extension. It is divided into three bays on the second level. The central bay each has two wide rectangular openings per floor, with each opening filled with two double-hung windows. The side bays consist of one pair of separate single openings per floor, each with a double-hung window. The street level has storefronts with transom windows. Currently, these are partially boarded up. Dark brown and buff bricks are used on the Second Avenue extension. Dark brick is used to frame window openings, to create long horizontal bands just above the storefront level, and to accentuate the parapet level. Here a special pattern is created, usually by alternating two buff bricks with one dark brick and so forth, then alternating the pattern in relation to the course above ( or below). This special pattern has a thin band of small bricks below it and, close to the top of the parapet, a header course of dark brown bricks. Alongside the main building at 410 2nd Avenue Extension is a one story building, 406 2nd Avenue Extension. It is also clad in brown and buff pressed brick. The plan of the building is trapezoidal, with a short elevation facing south and a west façade, which has a storefront level (currently boarded over). The brick facing uses the special pattern identified on 410 2nd Avenue over all the brick portions of the west and south facades.
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| Appearance |
| King County Tax Assessor Records give a date for these buildings as 1909, coincidentally, the year of Alaska-Pacific Yukon Exposition, but also the same year as the beginning of the Jackson Street Regrade. The Jackson Regrade spurred the Chinese community to relocate to the King Street core in the present Chinatown. The Chinese Community had long been located in the area on Washington Street between Second and Third Avenues, but it was becoming too congested, so that the reclaimed King Street/ Jackson Street core was attractive. The building to the north of these buildings was built by Chin Gee Hee and is considered the last obvious vestige of the old Chinese community in Pioneer Square. A hand notation on the King County Tax Record card for the present buildings indicates that they belonged to “Chum Ching Hock?” Chin Chun Hock was thought to be the first Chinese to settle in King County and one of the first residents of King County. He was also a business associate of Chin Gee Hee. The Wah Chong Company, which Chin Chun Hock founded, operated as a retail and import business, as well as a labor contractor. While Chin Chun Hock may not have been alive when the notation was made, it suggests that he or his heirs originally owned the property. The notation at least indicates that the building was also associated with the early Chinatown that existed in this area, particularly before the Second Avenue Extension of 1928 cut a swath through the edge of the former “burnt district.” After the Second Avenue Extension, a public works project which altered the urban spaces in the area and caused several buildings in its path to loose their facades, most what was left of the original Chinatown was gone. In fact, the three story structure is the vestige of the former Lexington Hotel, which lost its façade as a result of the Second Avenue Extension and the one story building sits close to/ or on the same site as the former Wah Chong Building, so that the ties with Chin Chun Hock are corroborated. The Second Avenue Extension facades are a direct result of the 1928-29 public works project, but these buildings, like 400 Second Avenue Extension to the north, are also vestiges of the earliest Chinese community Photos from the 1930s show that this building housed the Monterey Billiard Room and a Chinese restaurant, which advertised “Shanghai Chinese American dishes.” |
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| 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): |
Unknown |
| Building Type: |
Domestic - Hotel |
Plan: |
Irregular |
| Structural System: |
Masonry - Unreinforced |
No. of Stories: |
three |
| Unit Theme(s): |
Architecture/Landscape Architecture, Community Planning/Development, Ethnic Heritage |
| Integrity |
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Changes to Plan: |
Slight |
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Changes to Original Cladding: |
Slight |
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Changes to Windows: |
Slight |
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Storefront: |
Unknown |
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| Major Bibliographic References |
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Chin, Doug and Art. Uphill: The Settlement and Diffusion of the Chinese in Seattle. Seattle: Shorey Book Store, 1973.
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Jones & Jones Architects and Landscape Architects, Ltd. “Monterey Hotel Renovation, Chief Seattle Club and Live/Work Lofts, Design Report,” March 2004.
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Kovalenko Hale Architects (& Karin Link). “Merchant’s Café Building, 109 Yesler Way, Historic Preservation Certification Application, Part 1,” 1999.
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Taylor, Quintard. “Blacks and Asians in the White City.” The Forging of Black Community: Seattle’s Central District from 1870 to the Civil Rights Era. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1994.
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