| Historic Name: |
Frye Warehouses |
Common Name: |
|
| Style: |
Commercial, Vernacular |
Neighborhood: |
|
| Built By: |
|
Year Built: |
1922 |
| |
| Significance |
|
|
|
These modest warehouse buildings, addressed as 1021 - 1061, were constructed beginning in 1922 by The Austin Company, Engineers & Builders, for prominent businessman Charles Frye. An addition was constructed on the north side of the original construction in 1924. The addition was designed by by architect William J. Lees. Another addition to the warehouse building, also designed by Lees, was added on the south in 1925, but this portion was demolished in 1987. The warehouses were developed by Frye as an investment and leased to a variety of tenants over the years for use as distribution warehouses, with railcar loading access at the rear of the buildings. Tenants in the 1930s represented a wide variety of products, including food and grocery products, chemical and electrical interests, steel and wire manufacturers, furnace and baking equipment firms,and the Kress dime store company. Frye also developed similar warehouses across the street, on the east side of 6th Ave S., during this same time period.
Charles Frye's firm the Frye Company was a large and significant meat packing house that had grown to serve international markets by the 1920s.Frye also invested in real estate and in art. Charles and Emma Frye established the Frye Art Museum with their collections and endowed it for future generations.
Located in the former Seattle tidelands area, the warehouse building is associated with the final phase of the historic era of development of the area (Post World War I up to 1930) as a transportation-related industrial and commercial warehouse district. 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 20th century. The warehouses are relatively modest and are highly altered.
|
|
| |
| Appearance |
This property is considered as two structures: the larger southern portion (c.1922), providing 82,852 feet of warehouse space with 9 structural bays evident on the east elevation, and the northern building (c. 1924), measuring approximately 84 feet wide with 2 bays on the east elevation, and approximately 265 feet deep, providing 39,460 feet of space. All of the storefronts have been altered, including extensive alterations to windows, infill and/or expansion of loading bay openings, removal of skylights, loading docks, interior alterations.The rear, west elevation has also been altered similarly. The southern portion, that had been constructed in 1925, measuring 96 feet wide by 206 feet deep, appears to have been demolished.It was likely demolished for the construction of the I-90 ramps sometime around 1987.
Sources:
-------“Washington State Major League Baseball Stadium Project, Vol. 3: Specialized Technical Information,” Seattle, WA: Washington State Major League Baseball Stadium Public Facilities District. August, 1996.
|
|
|
