HistoryLink Tours

1902 2nd Avenue

In 1889, Arthur Denny (1822-1899) and other early Seattle investors began construction on the Denny Hotel on the south summit of Denny Hill near today’s 3rd Avenue and Virginia Street. The financial Panic of 1893 halted their work, but a decade later flamboyant real estate developer and hotelier James A. Moore bought the property, completed the building, and opened it as the Washington Hotel. Alas, the Washington was destined for oblivion in the ensuing regrade project, which sluiced 7.5 million cubic feet of earth into Elliott Bay and lowered towering Denny Hill some 100 feet. The Washington Hotel was necessarily demolished, and then rebuilt on this site in 1908 as the 14-story New Washington Hotel (now the Josephinum). President Theodore Roosevelt was the New Washington’s first guest, and later Elvis Presley stayed here. James A. Moore, who built the New Washington, also was responsible for our next stop, just up the block.