Seattle Historical Sites

The Chicago Milwaukee & Puget Sound Railway Co. designed and constructed this freight warehouse in 1910 and it is directly associated with the early development of the rail transport infrastructure in the Seattle tidelands area. Between 1906 and 1914, the Milwaukee, Great Northern, Union Pacific, and Northern Pacific, all national concerns, developed extensive rail yards and support facilities on the reclaimed tideflats. The historic Oregon and Washington Station (now Union Station, 1911), King Street Station (1906), and the railroad tunnel below downtown were also built during this time. The tidelands were filled through a series of successive grading and fill projects between 1895 and 1929, creating developable land that made the expansion of railroad and port facilities possible and fostering the development of the area for commercial use that supported significant economic progress of the city in the early 20^th century. It is a relatively intact example of an early industrial vernacular freight warehouse and its associations with the the development of the rail transit networks and the early industrial/commercial development of Seattle are direct and significant.

The primary tenants in the mid-1930s were the Rome Co. wholesale furniture and the Kellogg’s cereal company. In 1948 the Interstate Freight Lines Inc, an auto freight company, occupied the building. In 1957, the CM & PSRR sold the building to another freight handler, the Can-Go Shippers. The building still functioned as a freight and transport facility as late as 1978. Currently tenants include an architectural office and a wine outlet store

This vernacular three-story utilitarian structure is trapezoidal in shape and was configured to fit into a wedge shape lot between First Avenue South on the east side and the rail line running north-west diagonally along the northwest side of the building, where loading platforms are located. Its irregular wedge-shaped form gives the building a total footprint of 9253 sq. ft. in area. It has a flat roof and retains the original metal cornice. Unusually, the south wall of the building is bearing brick construction, while the rest of the building is mill frame with corrugated metal cladding. The cladding is relatively intact, although the first story of the east façade has newer in-kind metal cladding. The majority of the windows, which are industrial metal sashes of 5 over 5 lights, are also relatively intact, with the exception of windows on the first floor east façade and just a few others. Faded signage is visible in horizontal bands between the second and third stories on the east and west facades. The loading platforms and freight doors on the first story northwest façade appear to be altered to some extent, although historic photos do not show a clear view of this façade.