Seattle Historical Sites

Although definitely altered over time, this building has retained its basic structure and envelope, as well as what appear to be original or relatively early wood frame windows, particularly on the north elevation facing Horton St and the east elevation. Original drawings do not seem to be available. King County Tax Assessor Record card information gives the date of construction as 1917. By 1936, the building served as a machinery shop for the Star Machinery Company, once a fairly large complex of buildings and structures. This building figured as one of the largest, if not the largest, within the complex. Based on a photo from the same period, the west and south elevations did not feature multi-pane glazing at that time. Also during the 1930s, the company also apparently commissioned the design of the now very altered metal shed, which sits just south of this building. That shed appears to have been completed as late as 1939.

The C. Kirk Hillman Company Inc. acquired this building during the mid-1960s and remained until at least 1980.  It functioned as Plant No. 2 of the C. Kirk Hillman Company. C. Kirk Hillman was a known manufacturer of electrical machinery for both mining and logging resource extraction in the Seattle area. C. Kirk Hillman also commissioned and owned the wood frame industrial building, located at  3201 1^st Avenue South at Hanford Street in 1923. He also owned that property at least to 1980.  In 1984, Nemco Electric altered the wood frame shed at 207 S Horton St for its use. Although sold about 4 years later to Giebel and McCandles, the building is again associated with Nemco.

Additional Sources

Richard Seven, “How Goes SODO?,” Seattle Times, Pacific Northwest Magazine, October 19, 2003, database at :<http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/pacificnw/2003/1019/cover.html>, accessed March 2010.

Erin O’Connor, Lee O’Connor, Cheryl Thomas, (Friends of Roanoke Park), “National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Roanoke Park Historic District,” March, 2009, p16-17.

“Tech Review,” Vol. 16, Cambridge, MA: MIT Alumni Association, 1914, p 352.

This heavy timber post and beam structure industrial shed building is located at 207 S Horton Street on the southeast corner of 2^nd Avenue South and S Horton Street. Along 2^nd Avenue South, the west elevation faces the railroad tracks. The building footprint is approximately 70 feet by 161 feet, with the longer dimension reflected in the longer elevation set along S Horton Street. The building is also partially visible from 3^rd Avenue South and actually makes more of an impression from 3^rd Avenue. Currently, it is painted a dark red, which is partially what makes it stand out, even from 3^rd Avenue South.

The original interior heavy timber post and beam structure also included repeated kingpin trusses, as well as a “balcony area,” although the building was described in early records as one story in height.  Later documents show and describe an existing “mezzanine level.”

From the exterior, the building has a monitor roof, with clerestory windows. The central portion of the building rises above two flanking wings. The monitor roof level, and in particular the north elevation along Horton Street, is characterized by well-spaced and large window openings, each filled with two wood multi-pane sash. Siding is mostly wood vertical flush siding, although horizontal bevel siding also appears, particularly at the first level of windows. Wood frame windows with multi-pane sash also characterize the shorter gable end facing east. Similar windows, with less spacing between them than at the clerestory level, are also featured at the level below the clerestory on the Horton Street elevation. Below this long row of windows, taller openings, with both multi-pane sash and what looks like replacement window, (in very poor condition), characterize the lower level of the Horton Street elevation.

The longer south elevation, which faces a run-down metal shed from the 1930s, has had much more extensive changes made to its fenestration. Most of the window openings seem to be filled with single panes of glass, particularly at the second level. The first level includes sliding metal fire doors, added during the 1980s, as well as new glazing at the back (east) portion of the elevation. Window openings on the west elevation also feature single pane glazing.