| Historic Name: |
Crane Building/ Goldsmith Building |
Common Name: |
Goldsmith Building - Court in the Square |
| Style: |
Beaux Arts - Neoclassical, Commercial - Chicago School |
Neighborhood: |
Pioneer Square |
| Built By: |
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Year Built: |
1907 |
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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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401 2nd Avenue South was designed by architects Saunders and Lawton and completed in 1907. It was originally built for the Crane Company Corporation, which dealt in plumbing supplies and was first known as the Crane Building. The building later became known as the Goldsmith Building. The Crane/Goldsmith Building was located in the vicinity of a number of other buildings erected during the time of economic and industrial growth in the heart of Seattle around the 1900s. This period produced a second wave of building after the Fire of 1889 destroyed most of the area. The Crane Building and the former Chapin Building, also part of Court in the Square and various manufacturing buildings in the blocks to the west of them were all serviced by a spur of the Great Northern Railroad line, which lay alongside and under Fourth Avenue. The general location of the Crane, the Chapin and these other buildings was desirable, because of the proximity of the railroad line and of Elliott Bay.
The Crane/ Goldsmith building is a handsome, but typical example of warehouse buildings, designed by a notable Seattle architecture firm that was responsible for many warehouse buildings in the Pioneer Square-Skid Road National Historic District. The Saunders and Lawton partnership was formed in 1898 by Charles Saunders and his former draftsman, George Lawton. Saunders and Lawton were responsible for warehouse buildings in the Pioneer Square-Skid Road National Historic District, including the Norton Building of 1904, the F. X. McRory Building (formerly the McKesson and Roberts Building) of 1906, the Westland Building of 1907and somewhat later, the Polson Building of 1910. Saunders and Lawton were also supervising architects on the construction of Eames and Young’s Beaux Arts Alaska Building of 1904.
Charles Saunders’ career in Seattle, however, goes back to 1889. He came to Seattle in 1889 right after the Great Fire, probably because of an association with William Elder Bailey. Bailey was involved in ventures in real estate, railroads and newspapers in Seattle right after the Fire of 1889 until the early 1890s, when his finances went sour. By September of 1889, Charles Saunders had formed a partnership with Edwin Houghton, whom he may have met in California. The Saunders and Houghton Partnership produced several notable buildings in the new heart of Seattle right after the Fire of 1889, including the Bailey Building, the Terry Denny Building and the now demolished Olympic Block. After the dissolution of the Saunders and Houghton partnership in 1890, Saunders practiced independently until the formation of the Saunders and Lawton partnership in 1898, which lasted until 1915. Saunders and Lawton were also responsible for the Forestry Building, made of raw logs, at the Alaska-Yukon Exposition in Seattle in 1908-09.
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| Appearance |
| 401 2nd Avenue South is located on the northwest corner of South King Street and Second Avenue South. The seven story former commercial/warehouse building is rectangular in plan and has a footprint of 110 feet by 108 feet. It has a basement and the foundation is of concrete. Exterior structural walls are of reinforced concrete, with brick veneer and stone trim. Overall, the building facades present a distinct “base,” “middle” and “top,” with mottled color brick veneer, primarily in brown and gray and stone trim at sills and lintels.
There are two primary facades, a south façade on King Street and an east façade on 2nd Avenue South. The King Street façade has six bays. The ground and second floor are clad in rusticated brick, although the ground floor is primarily storefront. The second level consists of four central bays, each with two window openings. Stone lintels have keystones and sills are also of stone. To each side, the four central bays are flanked by a single bay, with one single opening. The whole is surmounted by a stone belt-course. The next four floors have a configuration of windows, corresponding to the second floor, but the brick is not rusticated and the lintel keystones are not emphasized. This is surmounted by a flat belt-course in stone. The top level again has corresponding window openings and rusticated brick. The parapet is topped by a deep corbel band which defines repeated small arches and runs the length of the façade.
The Second Avenue South façade is similar, except that the upper floors consist of five central bays of double window openings, flanked on each side by a bay with one window opening. The ground level is distinguished by a symmetrically placed entry, with a classically detailed stone frame, including carved floral rosettes. The entry leads up a low flight of steps to centrally placed double doors. The north elevation used to face a former railroad spur right-of-way and now faces the enclosed and glazed common atrium which this building shares with the building to the north, the Fuller Building, previously known as the Chapin Building. Both buildings form part of the renovation by Ralph Anderson of Anderson Koch and Duarte, known as Court in the Square. |
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| Status: |
Yes - Inventory |
| Classication: |
Building |
District Status: |
NR, LR |
| Cladding(s): |
Brick, Stone |
Foundation(s): |
Concrete - Poured |
| Roof Type(s): |
Flat with Parapet |
Roof Material(s): |
Asphalt/Composition |
| Building Type: |
Commercial/Trade - Warehouse |
Plan: |
Rectangular |
| Structural System: |
Masonry - Unreinforced |
No. of Stories: |
seven |
| Unit Theme(s): |
Architecture/Landscape Architecture, Commerce, Manufacturing/Industry, Transportation |
| Integrity |
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Changes to Plan: |
Intact |
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Storefront: |
Moderate |
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Changes to Windows: |
Moderate |
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Changes to Original Cladding: |
Slight |
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| Major Bibliographic References |
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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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Ochsner, Jeffrey and Dennis Andersen. Distant Corner: Seattle Architects and The Legacy of H. H. Richardson. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 2004.
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The Conservation Company. “Chapin Building (North Coast Electric Building), 165-173 S. Jackson Street, Historic Preservation Certification, Part 1,” 10 December 1981. OAHP, State of Washington, Olympia, Washington, Microfiche File.
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