| Historic Name: |
Standard Brands |
Common Name: |
1205 East Pike Building |
| Style: |
Commercial - Chicago School |
Neighborhood: |
Pike/Pine |
| Built By: |
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Year Built: |
1920 |
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| Significance |
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This building is notable for its large windows with intact operable awning-style transoms. Constructed in 1920, this may have been an auto dealership originally, as it has the typical showroom with large display windows on the first floor and an auto entrance. The Pike/Pine/Broadway vicinity became Seattle's Auto Row shortly after the first automobile was offered for sale here in 1905. For the next twenty years virtually all local auto dealers and numerous auto-related businesses were located here. A unique building type was developed for urban auto dealerships. They were fireproof buildings of concrete or brick masonry, with showrooms with large display windows to showcase the merchandise, and driveways to provide auto storage in the rear. Interior ramps or large freight elevators were used to get autos to second floor garages or service areas. During the Depression most of these dealerships closed and the buildings were occupied by used car dealers, auto supply stores and repair services. By 1937 it was a warehouse and sales office for Standards Brands of California, which distributed, among other things, Fleischman's Yeast. It was later a surgical supply warehouse and now has a variety of retail uses.
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| Appearance |
| This is a relatively simple building of reinforced concrete with stucco cladding. It has a wide unornamented concrete cornice with two narrow belt courses below it, above the second story windows. Between the two courses, at the corners and between each bay, is a small tile mosaic. Second-floor windows are very large metal sash with 12-light canopy-style transoms. First-floor windows are the same. The first-floor sash are older but may not be original. Some minor changes have been made to the storefront on Pike Street (north). The garage entry at the south end of the west elevation is intact with two eight-light paneled doors. Twelfth Avenue slopes to the south, and their are daylight basement windows at sidewalk level, with 8-light sash. |
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