| Historic Name: |
Spring Apartment Hotel / Kennedy Hotel |
Common Name: |
Vintage Park Hotel |
| Style: |
Commercial |
Neighborhood: |
Commercial Core |
| Built By: |
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Year Built: |
1922, 1959 |
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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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This property is directly associated with the early twentieth century developmental era (1920-1930) when a significant number of commercial buildings were constructed and the modern downtown commercial district was fully established. In 1923, Seattle adopted its first ordinance that regulated specific geographic areas for specified uses; it allowed the most densely concentrated commercial development to occur in the downtown core. The economic prosperity of the 1920s stimulated the development of numerous major highrise commercial buildings, as well as smaller-scale bank and commercial buildings, major hotels and apartment hotels, club buildings and entertainment facilities, which were typically designed by leading Seattle architects. During this era, the original residential district was entirely absorbed by commercial and other real estate development. By 1930, virtually all of the old residential properties - as well as many of the immediate post-fire era commercial buildings outside of Pioneer Square - had been demolished or removed.
The concept of the modern hotel that would include private rooms, toilet and bathing facilities, public spaces and related guest services, originated in the early nineteenth century. By 1853, the settlement community of Seattle included its first hotel, the Felker House. By the later part of the nineteenth century, Seattle - like cities throughout the United States - included a significant number of hotels that served a wide variety of business travelers, tourists and both permanent and semi-permanent residents. By the late 1880s several elegant hotels as well as workingmen’s hotels were clustered along the west side of First Avenue between Cherry and Columbia – in proximity to the original railway passenger depot. Urban hotels, lodging and apartment buildings all closely resembled commercial office buildings in the 1880s and 1890s; it was not until the 1920s that hotel design became distinctly different in exterior appearance.
Early hotel development was clearly stimulated by improvements in railroad service that brought immigrants and drew tourists and entrepreneurs. Prior to the fire of 1889, the Occidental – Seattle Hotel (1864, 1887 & 1889, destroyed), was the city’s premier tourist-oriented hotel, although there were numerous other hotels located within the commercial district. At least a dozen hotels were destroyed in the great fire of 1889; however, within four years some 63 hotels were in operation.
After the fire, both the Rainier Hotel (1889, destroyed) between Columbia and Marion Streets above Fifth Avenue and the Rainier-Grand Hotel (c.1889, destroyed) at First Avenue and Marion Street functioned as the major tourist hotels. The Rainier had been intended initially to serve as a resort hotel, as was The Denny Hotel (1890-1892, destroyed). Both were large wood-frame buildings located above the commercial and residential districts with panoramic views out to the harbor. Other major post-fire tourist-oriented hotels included the Butler Hotel (1893, partly destroyed) and the Lincoln Hotel (1900, destroyed by fire in 1920) at Fourth Avenue and Madison Street. The Lincoln was promoted as an elegant residential hotel with family-style living quarters.
By the turn of the century, tourist and residential hotels lined the west side of First Avenue to Pike Street. Based on the number of hotels that were operating in Seattle by 1900, it is certain that they mostly catered to long-term residents rather than temporary visitors. Many buildings that were identified as hotels actually functioned as lodging houses or apartment hotels. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, hotel living was particularly common especially in the developing cities of the American West. Hotels varied significantly in size and accommodations provided and served every economic level from those of wealth to recent immigrants and transient salesmen and laborers. Given the tremendous population growth in Seattle after 1902, hotels and lodging houses played an important role in absorbing a new and largely transient populous. While large resort or tourist-oriented hotels like the Rainier-Grande Hotel and the Denny Hotel are noteworthy, the great majority of hotel buildings built after 1900 and prior to the 1920s were much more modest operations. A particularly significance boom in hotel development occurred between 1906 and 1910 in conjunction with local economic opportunities and population growth as well as the opening of the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific (AYP) Exposition of 1909 that drew some 3.7 million visitors. By 1910, Polk’s Directory included over 475 hotel listings.
During the 1920s, a second boom in major hotel development occurred at which time several luxury hotels and large apartment hotels were built in the downtown commercial district. They contrasted with earlier hotels that were rarely taller than six-stories; like their neighboring office buildings, these new hotels were significantly larger and taller multi-story buildings that accommodated hundreds of guest rooms. Several were designed to include kitchen facilities and promoted for both hotel and apartment hotel purposes, including: the Spring Apartment Hotel (Kennedy, Vintage Park, 1922); Claremont Apartment Hotel (Hotel Andre, 1925); and Camlin Apartment Hotel (1926).
The construction of the highly luxurious Olympic Hotel at a pivotal central location in the Metropolitan Tract in 1923 appears to have spurred major hotel construction nearby, including: the Spring Apartment Hotel (Kennedy, Vintage Park, 1922); Continental Hotel (Hotel Seattle, 1926) and the Hungerford Hotel (Pacific Plaza, 1928). Simultaneously, numerous hotels were developed nearer the new retail core at the north end of the commercial district, including: the Vance Hotel (1926); the Benjamin Franklin Hotel (1928, destroyed) and the Bergonian Hotel (Mayflower Park Hotel, 1927). The design for most – but not all – of these hotels included large lobbies, restaurants, meeting rooms, and storefront level retail spaces. They were typically executed in a modest neoclassical mode with brick cladding and distinctive terra cotta ornament at the base and building cap. The 17-story Roosevelt Hotel, designed in the distinctive Art Deco style was completed in 1930. It was the last major downtown hotel constructed during this era and the tallest to be built until the late 1960s. In 1969, the 13-story Benjamin-Franklin Hotel was interconnected to a new 40-story tower wing and renamed the Washington Plaza Hotel. In 1980, the Benjamin Franklin Hotel was demolished in order to construct a second (44-story) tower wing, now known as the Westin Hotel.
The Spring Apartment Hotel was constructed in 1922 for William H. Hainsworth, a representative of the Spring Apartment Hotel Co. This construction project appears to have been the first major hotel or apartment hotel to be constructed downtown as the elegant Olympic Hotel, designed by distinguished New York firm of George B. Post & Sons and Seattle’s most luxurious historic hotel, was being erected on the Metropolitan Tract. The subject building was built by general contractor Hans Petersen for an anticipated cost of $500,000. The eleven-story building was designed by John Graham Sr. as an “apartment hotel” - there were no retail storefronts, the building was entirely devoted to residential hotel purposes and remained so for three decades. Historically, family-style hotels were designed to include suites of rooms that would be used by individuals who needed especially comfortable long-term accommodations for their relocated families or those who traveled regularly but maintained a principal residence elsewhere. Apartment hotels differed from apartment living in that regular household help and meals were available as part of the hotel services and the guest rooms included a small kitchen and dining area for short-term guests or long-term residents.
The building was purchased by John M. Emel in the 1940s. In 1958, an adjacent older, four –story, wood-frame apartment building was removed in order to construct an inner connected four-story hotel parking garage designed by NBBJ. The new parking facility could hold 105 cars and the name of the hotel name was changed to a the Emel Motor Hotel; during this era the concept of the “motel” was becoming particularly popular and the term “motor hotel” let the potential guests know that it was a modern hotel facility. In 1959, the ground floor level was altered for the first time to include a modern storefront at Fifth Avenue designed NBBJ. Mr. Emel died in 1965 and Jack Baird & Associates purchased the building in 1968 and changed its name once again to The Kennedy Hotel and undertook additional upgrade work on the guest rooms. By this time the building no longer functioned for apartment hotel purposes; it is not known when it converted entirely to hotel use. In 1992, a major renovation project was undertaken throughout the entire interior and the current traditional storefronts were constructed.
The architect, John Graham, Sr. (1873-1955), was one of the city's most prominent designers. Born in Liverpool, he apprenticed as an architect in England before settling in Seattle in 1901. He was responsible for many of the city’s most important and notable buildings. His work covered a wide range of building types, including a number of residences; the Ford Motor Company assembly plant (1913); office buildings - the Dexter-Horton Building (1921-24) and the Exchange Building (1929-31); institutions (four buildings at the University of Washington, 1927-28) and the U.S. Marine Hospital (1931-34); and department stores (Frederick & Nelson (1916-19) and the Bon Marche (1928-29), as well as churches, yacht clubs and apartments building. He also embraced a variety of styles, from the Tudor Revival used for the Victoria Apartments on Queen Anne Hill and the University buildings to the Art Deco masterpieces of the Exchange Building and the Marine Hospital.
Despite the storefront level alterations the exterior is generally well-preserved as an example of an important downtown property type, apartment hotel, from this era. It is a noteworthy example of hotel and apartment design from this era and was designed by an important Seattle architect, John Graham, Sr. [This property may potentially meet local landmark criteria.]
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| Appearance |
| Prominently located at the sloping NE corner of Fifth Avenue and Spring Street, this 11-story, high-rise hotel building was originally designed and constructed as an apartment-hotel with 115 apartment and hotel rooms. The upper floor levels continue to be used for hotel purposes. A commercial restaurant use has been established at the Fifth Avenue storefront level. The building has a reverese L-shaped plan with a light court at NE corner and measures 60’ x 120’ at the major facades oriented to both of the adjacent streetfronts. It exhibits a three-part vertical block façade composition, some distinctive terra cotta materials and details, and classically-derived architectural ornament and design features. The hotel building is functionally interconnected to a modern parking facility located on the adjacent parcel to the north.
The reinforced concrete structure includes a concrete foundation and partial basement and is clad with red and buff color brick laid in a Flemish bond and terra cotta ornament. Non-historic polished green marble and synthetic stucco have been added at the renovated building base, which was previously remodeled in the 1950s. Original features of the base remain in place at the second floor level and include original window openings and an ornate denticulated intermediate cornice. The original base did not include any retail storefronts, only the hotel/apartment entry doors and surround surmounted by a narrow bracketed balcony/balustrade and flanked by standard window openings. The storefront level appears to have been remodeled in the late 1950s (when the adjacent garage was initially constructed) with the installation modern concrete/stucco cladding and a plain canopy.
The shaft is dominated at each façade by bays of asymmetrically placed windows of varied widths and groups indicative of internal living room/kitchen configurations. The brick cladding is laid in a Flemish bond and all window openings are accentuated by terra cotta keystones and sills. Original double-hung 10/1 and 8/1 window sash has been replaced with a somewhat similar 1/1 double-hung sash product.
The building cap is highly accentuated by a denticulated terra cotta intermediate cornice, buff color cladding with some contrasting red brickwork at the tenth floor level and a prominent ornate denticulated entablature and terminal cornice. The storefront was rehabilitated in the 1990s and now includes a synthetic stucco that simulates cut stone, new door and window openings and trim/finishes that have a false historic appearance. The lobby interior has been entirely remodeled and no intact or architecturally significant interior building features, finishes or public spaces remain in place. |
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