New Richmond Hotel

National Register – The New Richmond Hotel – 1911, Seattle

The New Richmond Hotel Building is historically significant under Criterion C, as a property that embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, and method of construction and represents the work of two noted Seattle architects, Édouard Champney and Augustus Gould. The hotel is the best surviving example of a design by the short-term partnership.

Constructed in 1911, the nine-story, Neoclassical Revival-style building rose in a record time of six-months in concert with the then recently opened Union Station and the King Street Station. The two grand railroad depots formed the premier entrance to Seattle. The New Richmond Hotel catered directly to travelers arriving at the stations. In an advertising brochure, it offered nightly, weekly, and monthly rates, and dubbed itself “one of Seattle’s largest and best priced hotels.”

The New Richmond Hotel was developed by R. A. McCormick, a successful Seattle pioneer and real estate developer. At the time of the hotel’s opening, a columnist for The Seattle Post-Intelligencer credited McCormick for having the “spirit that in the days of Seattle’s infancy made men take chances on the growth and development” of the city.

As an elegant accommodation for railroad travelers, the New Richmond rivaled the Beaux Arts-style Frye Hotel that opened three blocks northwest at Third and Yesler. Seventy-five percent of the New Richmond’s 325 rooms had baths or showers, while the remainder had basins with hot and cold running water. The Seattle Post-intelligencer said, “In point of excellence of plumbing fixtures the New Richmond hotel is the best in Seattle, it having more rooms with baths than any other . . .” The lobby is described as “a marvel of beauty and spaciousness, being 64 x 27 feet, and finished in Alaska marble and mahogany” with a 27-foot ceiling, “composed of art glass.” The article notes the size of the windows: “These are unusually large even for a community where the windows in all buildings are of necessity large. Light in plenty is here . . .”

The hotel was the tallest structure in its immediate neighborhood. Today, it continues to dominate the streetscape. With the exception of alterations to the storefronts, the building’s façades remain intact and retain their historical integrity.

In addition to overnight guests, the New Richmond was a residential hotel with long-term tenants. Its massing, height, and decorative terra cotta stood in contrast to other nearby buildings east of it, such as the Panama Hotel and the Northern Pacific Hotel. McCormick endeavored to distinguish his establishment from the Asian immigrant community and from its hotels which catered largely to single men. A 1923 brochure for the New Richmond Hotel states, “All American Owned – All White Help.” The storefronts housed a variety of businesses, including W. Nakamura Watchmakers, Richmond Barbers, the Richmond Café, Richmond Tailors, and others. In 1919, A. D. Tomlinson opened the New Richmond Laundry with facilities in the building’s basement and sub-basement, where the business operated until 1962. The laundry served hotel guests as well as clients from the Pioneer Square neighborhood.

Throughout the teens, twenties and thirties, the hotel played host to a variety of parties, meetings, and social events. Such events ranged from hosting the 46th Annual Convention of the American Poultry Association in 1922 with over 200 delegates, the Wear Ever Aluminum Company district convention in 1931, to the meeting location for the Seattle Homeownership Club in the 1930s.

The New Richmond weathered the Depression. In March 1943, the Army commandeered the nominated building for a hospital and military family housing. The $7.5 million conversion, led by the US Army Corp of Engineers, included several operating rooms, emergency power supply and lead-shielded x-ray rooms, however it was obsolete before it opened and it was re-open as a hotel in August of 1944.

In the 1960s, the hotel had periods of respectability, but sharp decline set in. The building reopened as the Down Town Hotel Apartments. In 1970, Martin and Howard I. Seelig purchased the building and rehabilitated approximately 300 rooms into 240 FHA apartments. Today, the Downtowner continues to provide housing for qualified renters who meet low income requirements.

Designed in the Neoclassical Revival style, the large and imposing building features restrained terra cotta ornamentation on a reinforced concrete frame—a construction technique that had become popular in Seattle by 1910. The design features Beaux Arts influences, such as the original decorative parapet (damaged and removed after the 1949 earthquake), enriched entablature featuring decorative brackets, and quoining at the window surrounds.

The building was designed by two of Seattle’s most prominent architects, Édouard Frère Champney and Augustus William Gould during their brief partnership that lasted from 1909 to 1912. The New Richmond Hotel is significant as a rare surviving example of work produced by this partnership.

In addition to the New Richmond Hotel, the Gould & Champney partnership’s work included the Seattle Electric Company Building; the Seattle warehouse for Bekins Storage Company; and the New Farmers Bank in Ellensburg.