| Historic Name: |
Puget Sound News Company |
Common Name: |
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| Style: |
Art Deco - Streamline Moderne |
Neighborhood: |
Queen Anne |
| Built By: |
Walter Monroe Cory & George Wellington Stoddard |
Year Built: |
1948 |
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| Significance |
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In the opinion of the survey, this property appears to meet the criteria of the National Register of Historic Places. |
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In the opinion of the survey, this property appears to meet the criteria of the Seattle Landmarks Preservation Ordinance. |
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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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This is a very good example of an Art Moderne industrial/warehouse building. Typical details of the style include a rounded entry pavilion with extensive use of glass block and metal sash. The building was built in 1948 for the Puget Sound News Company, a division of the American News Company, one of the country's major distributors of periodicals and producer of picture post cards. The building was primarily warehouse space, with room for storage and truck loading. Offices were upstairs. It was later a color printing operation, Colorcraft, and appears to currently be used by Seattle Center.
Walter Monroe Cory of New York was the primary architect. Cory and his older brother Russell G. Cory were trained in engineering and specialized in industrial buildings. They worked together as Cory and Cory from 1924 until 1934. Their work on bottling plants has been documented in the Historic American Engineering Record (Canada Dry Bottling Plant HAER No. MD-131); one of these plants exists in Seattle on the campus of Seattle University. Their first major commission was the American News Building (1923-24) in Manhattan, with Walter working as project manager for the News construction projects. The design included innovative materials delivery and shipping systems; it is not known how these were, or are, reflected in the interior of this building. Walter formed his own industrial architect-engineering firm in 1942. The use of the Moderne style, with a rounded corner, and of large modern windows to bring light into the production spaces, are characteristics of his style.
The local architect, George Wellington Stoddard, was responsible for a number of Moderne budlings, including the Harlan Fairbanks Company on Elliott Avenue West. He practiced in partnership with his father, Lewis Stoddard, from 1920 to 1929, and had his own practice until 1955, when he entered a partnership with Francis Huggard. His best known works are the Green Lake Aqua Theater, Memorial Stadium at Seattle Center, and the south stands of Husky Stadium. However, he also designed many larger homes and a wide variety of commercial structures such as banks, apartment buildings and clinics.
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| Appearance |
| This warehouse/office structure is of reinforced concrete, with a two-story rounded corner entry. Above the doorway is a three-part original metal window with operable canopy sash. There is decorative fluting above the window and along the cornice line. A small curved stucco canopy shelters the doorway. The door is flanked by two identical bronze plaques saying "The Puget Sound News Company Division of American News Company 1948."
The north elevation has five large sections of glass block. The remaining windows have newer metal sash; although these may be replacement sash, they appear to be similar to the original and are compatible with the building as a whole. A very large garage door is at the west end of the north elevation. The elevation has glass block and metal sash on the second floor, with garage doors and blank wall on the first-floor warehouse area. |
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| Status: |
Yes - Inventory |
| Classication: |
Building |
District Status: |
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| Cladding(s): |
Concrete |
Foundation(s): |
Concrete - Poured |
| Roof Type(s): |
Flat |
Roof Material(s): |
Unknown |
| Building Type: |
Commercial/Trade - Warehouse |
Plan: |
Rectangular |
| Structural System: |
Concrete - Poured |
No. of Stories: |
two |
| Unit Theme(s): |
Architecture/Landscape Architecture, Manufacturing/Industry |
| Integrity |
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Changes to Plan: |
Intact |
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Changes to Windows: |
Intact |
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Changes to Original Cladding: |
Intact |
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| Major Bibliographic References |
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City of Seattle DCLU Microfilm Records.
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King County Property Record Card (c. 1938-1972), Washington State Archives.
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Polk's Seattle Directories, 1890-1996.
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Ochsner, Jeffrey Karl, ed. Shaping Seattle Architecture, A Historical Guide to the Architects. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1994.
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