Seattle Historical Sites

Summary for 108 S Washington ST S / Parcel ID 5247800481 / Inv #

Historic Name: Terry and Kittinger Building Common Name: Delmar Building and State Hotel Style: Queen Anne - Richardsonian Romanesque Neighborhood: Pioneer Square Built By: Year Built: 1891   Significance In the opinion of the survey, this property is located in a potential historic districe (National and/or local). The Delmar Building / State Hotel was originally designed as a joint block for two different owners by Henry Steinmann and completed in 1891. It was part of the wave of building activity right after the Fire of June 6, 1889. The northern portion of the property, later the State Hotel, originally served as a dry goods store. The building is also supposed to have housed the city’s earliest pharmacy as well as a Chinese laundry in the basement. Two different owners, Kittinger and Terry, originally had possession of the property, so the original name of the building was the Terry-Kitttinger building. In one version of the story, it was G.B. Kittinger and R.L. Terry who jointly developed the property. In another version of this story, Mary C. Terry Kittinger and her brother, Edward Terry each inherited adjacent properties from their deceased father, Charles Terry, and jointly developed them. According to the Part I for the certification application, the building was physically divided into two parts, either before construction or soon thereafter, possibly in 1902. In 1909, the northern portion of the building became a 200 room, low budget hotel, with an entry on First Avenue South. The State Hotel continued to serve as a low-budget hotel until a fire occurred in an upper floor of the building in 1967. The Delmar name stuck to the southern portion of the building at a later date, and even in the 1969/ 1970 National Register nomination for the Pioneer Square-Skid Road Historic District, was written “Del Mar.” There is a little more certainty about the architect of the building. Herman Steinmann was born in 1860 and practiced architecture in St. Louis, Missouri from 1883 to 1887, before arriving in Seattle in 1887; so that he designed several buildings before the Fire of 1889, including a Squire Building in 1888, which was destroyed. His only known extant building in Pioneer Square appears to be the State Hotel/ Delmar Building. He also designed a brewery building in Vancouver B.C. in 1890. He later worked in New York City, where he designed breweries and also committed suicide in 1905.   Appearance Rectangular in plan, this four-story, brick clad building is located on the northeast corner of First Avenue South and South Washington Street. The First Avenue façade is divided into four equal bays. The Washington Street elevation is divided into six bays with a central bay that is slightly wider, (three windows instead of a pair of windows), than the others. On First Avenue South, a typical bay is composed of a two-story semi-circular arched opening, topped by an ornamented hobnail terra cotta panel. Typically there is a stone belt-course above this, and then two levels of paired rectangular double hung windows at the third and fourth levels. Storefronts occur at the ground level of the two-story arched openings, which are also emphasized by tall piers with Romanesque Revival capitals and deep bases. The faces of the piers are also adorned by a characteristic sheet metal façade ornament. The South Washington Street elevation has the same sort of typical ornamented bay with semi-circular arches and terra-cotta spandrels in the first bay to the west and in the two corner bays to the east. The bays between are much simpler and have flat arched window openings at the second and third levels. Terra-cotta ornamental panels, which are fluted, are set between the top level windows on both elevations. The building has clearly lost its original parapet and cornice, which has been replaced by a reinforced, poured-in-place concrete parapet, currently a pinkish color.The interior of the building is notable for the pressed metal wainscot panels in the main entry stair. The building was restored in 1979 by Stickney Murphy architects, who seem to have worked on the southern portion of the property and in 1985-86 by Tonkin Koch Architects, who apparently worked on the northern portion. In the 1985-86 restoration, original wood frame windows were retained and repaired in place. The interior structure was unsound, but care was taken to retain important architectural elements, such as interior brick arches and pressed metal wainscot panels. A penthouse that is not visible from the street was also added at that time. Aside from the loss of the parapet and cornice, the Delmar Building/State Hotel has retained its architectural integrity and remains a very important and contributing building in the Pioneer Square-Skid Road National Historic District.

Detail for 108 S Washington ST S / Parcel ID 5247800481 / Inv #

Status: Yes - Inventory Classication: Building District Status: NR, LR Cladding(s): Brick, Metal, Stone, Terra cotta 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: Moderate Changes to Plan: Intact Changes to Windows: Intact Changes to Original Cladding: Slight Major Bibliographic References Shaping Seattle Architecture: A Historical Guide to the Architects. Jeffrey Karl Ochsner, ed. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1994. “Building a Better City, the Terry-Kittinger Block on Commercial Street,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, July 12, 1889, p 4, Col. 4 . Stickney & Murphy Architects. “The State Building, Historic Preservation Certification Application, Part 1,” 1979. OAHP, State of Washington, Olympia, Washington, Microfiche File. Tonkin Koch Architects. “The Delmar Building, Historic Preservation Certification, Parts 1 & 2.” 1985-86. OAHP, State of Washington, Olympia, Washington, Microfiche File.

Photo collection for 108 S Washington ST S / Parcel ID 5247800481 / Inv #

Photo taken May 24, 2004