HistoryLink Tours

The Seattle Times Building formerly stood on this site. All that remains is the façade.

When the building went up in 1931, one could buy more than 150 different newspapers printed in Seattle, including several dailies and papers printed in Korean, German, Swedish, Italian, and Japanese, as well as others focused on workers, African Americans, and various neighborhoods. The Seattle Times was one of the largest. It was started in 1896 by Alden Blethen, whose son Colonel Clarence B. Blethen commissioned a new building after the company outgrew its distinctive, triangular home at 414 Olive Way (which still stands). Built of poured concrete in the Art Deco style, the John Street building featured decorative panels of cast aluminum and carved cladding made of 330 million-year-old, fossil-rich Salem Limestone, quarried in Indiana.

The architect, Robert Reamer, also designed the Old Faithful Inn at Yellowstone National Park and the Lake Quinault Lodge in Olympic National Park, along with several important buildings in Seattle and elsewhere. On March 11, 1996, the Seattle Times Building was designated a City of Seattle Landmark.