| Historic Name: |
Hambaca Building/ Westland Building/ Tempco Quilters Building |
Common Name: |
Westland Building |
| 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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Now called the Westland Building, it was designed by Saunders and Lawton in 1907 for Albert Hambach. The building has had other names. These include the “Hambaca Building,” and the “Tempco Quilters Building.” While the building is typical of the kind of warehouse buildings constructed in the same period, as a result of an economic upswing, initially caused by the Klondike Gold Rush of 1897-98 and the railroads, it also stands out somewhat because of some its idiosyncratic ornament.
Albert Hambach was a successful wholesale dealer in steam and plumbing supplies and had owned property or commissioned buildings in the former “burnt district” since 1898. In fact, he is listed in local directories in 1898 at an address on Western Avenue. In 1905, a warehouse building designed by Josenhans and Allan at 212 Second Avenue/313 Second Avenue Extension, between 2nd Avenue and 2nd Avenue Extension was built for Hambach (It later became Northwest Supply Company and in the 1920s, as a result of the Second Avenue Extension, acquired a new façade by no other than Lawton and Moldenhour). In 1913, the Hambach Building, located next to the Seller Building and directly across the street from the Westland Building was also completed.
The Saunders and Lawton partnership was formed in 1898, when Charles Saunders joined up with his former draftsman, George Lawton. The Westland Building is not only typical of the warehouse buildings produced in the same neighborhood - buildings with a strong “base,” “middle” and prominent cornice, following the Chicago School model more or less, with simple repeated bays - but it also has some fairly distinctive ornament. It is a definite departure from the works associated with Saunders from the 1890s, when he was in partnership with Houghton or working independently. The building, although simple in some ways, is also clearly a product of a few more years of experience and maturity.
Charles Saunders had originally come to Seattle in 1889 right after the Great Fire, probably because of an association with William Elder Bailey. William Bailey, the son of a leading Pennsylvania iron and steel manufacturer, was involved in ventures in real estate, railroads and newspapers in Seattle right after the Fire of 1889 and commissioned several buildings from Saunders and Houghton, until his finances went sour and he left Seattle (around 1892-93). Saunders grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He practiced architecture for a time, from 1886 to 1889, in Pasadena, California, along with his wife, Mary, before moving to Seattle in June 1889. By September of 1889, he had formed a partnership with Edwin Houghton, whom he may have also met in California. The Saunders and Houghton Partnership produced several notable buildings, including the Bailey Building, the Terry Denny Building and the now demolished Olympic Block in the new heart of Seattle, right after the Great Fire. 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 responsible for the Forestry Building, made of raw logs, at the Alaska-Yukon Exposition in Seattle in 1908-09 and were supervising architects on the construction of Eames and Young’s Alaska Building, also in the Pioneer Square-Skid Road National Historic District.
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| Appearance |
| This is a six story building, rectangular in plan and clad in gray brick. The interior structure is heavy timber post and beam (with wood flooring), which is visible in the present two story lobby off King Street. The building’s main facades are on the east side of First Avenue South and the north side of King Street. The King Street elevation has a symmetrical composition and a wide two story central entrance. To each side of the entrance are two bays, each consisting of two levels of rectangular windows. On the interior, the lower level windows correspond to spaces which are slightly below grade. Each window opening is filled with a wooden frame with a horizontal of row of four windows. A solid stone belt course separates the two story base of the building from the upper levels.
The four upper floors of the central bay are defined by four story brick pilasters with a base and a simplified capital, based on the Doric order, but with, at the center of the capital, a square emblem with three large hanging dentils. Each capital is topped by a plain circular medallion attached to the brick wall behind it. A continuous belt course runs the length of the elevation just above the cushion of the capital. Between the pilasters and immediately to each side of them, the upper level bays are all the same, a row of four double-hung windows in a wood frame. To each side of the corner bays, which consist of pairs of single double-hung windows, is a stone shield motif set below the top belt course.
Capping the façade is a projecting cornice with big modillions. Each modillion “face”
(parallel to the ground) has a diamond shape ornament. Small circular shapes in relief appear between the modillions on the band that runs the length of the façade.
The First Avenue South elevation is also five bays wide and almost identical on the upper levels to the King Street elevation. At the ground level, there is an entrance on the north bay.
The building was restored in 1978 by architects Ralph Anderson & Partners/ Booth & Koch and Stickney & Murphy, with Ratti/ Fossatti Associates as structural engineers.}The building was restored in 1978. An extant photo, which looks as though it is from the 1960s or 1970s, as well as an earlier 1930s photo, shows that the current ground floor window openings had garage doors and that there was no major central entrance on King Street. Aside from this, changes to the building’s exterior seem minor. |
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| Status: |
Yes - Inventory |
| Classication: |
Building |
District Status: |
NR, LR |
| Cladding(s): |
Brick, Metal, 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: |
six |
| Unit Theme(s): |
Architecture/Landscape Architecture, Commerce, Manufacturing/Industry |
| Integrity |
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Changes to Plan: |
Intact |
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Changes to Original Cladding: |
Slight |
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Changes to Windows: |
Moderate |
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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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Lentz, Florence K.“Hambach Warehouse – NW Supply- 212 Second Avenue, Historic Preservation Certification, Part 1,” 28 August 2003.
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R. D. Merrill Company. “Merrill Place, Historic Preservation Certification, Part 1,” 18 May 1983. Office of Archeology and Historic Preservation, State of Washington, Olympia, Washington, Microfiche File.
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