A Brief History of the Cadillac Hotel

By Heather MacIntosh, Preservation Advocate

The Cadillac Hotel, built in the six months following Seattle's devastating 1889 fire, was one of 25 to rise before the end of that pivotal year in the city's history. The fire sparked immediate demand for new, "fireproof" buildings in the commercial downtown. Fireproofing in those days meant brick construction - seismic issues weren't the major concern they are today.

In Seattle's first decades, the architecture business was comprised mostly of skilled contractors and in 1889, business was booming. Before 1889, the pioneer town was a collection of wood frame buildings lining a grid of dirt streets. After the fire, the urban landscape changed considerably, which kept brick making concerns in King and Pierce County quite busy.

James W. Hetherington, who may have begun his career as a talented carpenter, opened an architecture firm right around the time of the fire. Along with a man named Clements, he designed the Cadillac, which has gone by a handful of names in its 112 year history, including the Elliott House, the Star Lodge and the Derig Hotel. The building is one of eight structures built immediately after the 1889 fire that still stand relatively unaltered in the Pioneer Square area today. When built, it stood at the edge of Pioneer Square, a block away from a railroad trestle carrying Northern Pacific trains and freight to Elliott Bay's wharves. The squeaks and rumbles of street cars turning nearby on Jackson added to the din. It was far from a peaceful bed and breakfast situation.

Hotels like the Cadillac were built to serve a critical role in growing industrial cities like Seattle. The shipyards, the wharves, the railroads, and the timber industry attracted droves of unskilled workers from the rest of the US and Europe. The area along the south edge of commercial downtown where most industrial activity was concentrated, was prime real estate for inexpensive transient hotels and boarding houses. Generally, hotels like these stood within walking distance of industrial areas because most unskilled workers could not afford streetcar fare.

Most of the Cadillac's temporary residents who occupied its 56 rooms were single men. Occupancy rates were highest in the winter when workers came into the city from outlying areas - like the timbering regions immediately east of the city - to cobble together a living of odd jobs.

In its first decades, the Cadillac contained a laundry list of businesses including a second hand shop, a pawn broker, a few cheap restaurants, a bar, a cigar store, and a drug store. The Cadillac's early management was Japanese, while the owners, the Buttnick's, were white. This was a common practice back in the days when Japanese were banned from property ownership. In Washington's 1889 constitution, Asians were the only immigrants barred from naturalization in the US. They were thus prevented from owning land, and later, in 1921, were kept from leasing and renting land altogether. Seattle's Asian community originally concentrated around the Second Avenue area east of Pioneer Square. By the 1920s, many Asian residents moved to the current Chinatown International District due to regrading efforts in old Chinatown. As in Pioneer Square, Chinatown was home to a number of inexpensive hotels that catered to newly arrived workers with no family connections in the area.

Though waterfront industrial activity subsided in the first decades of the 20th century, the downtown saw booms during both world wars. During wartime, the railyards at Union and King Street Stations were a buzz with constant activity, as were the shipyards. The adjacent Cadillac Hotel no doubt housed more than a few wartime workers. After the wars, however, Pioneer Square, home of "Skid Road" and a number of transient hotels, saw a significant decline.

Around 1950, the city started considering the problems of Pioneer Square, transient hotels, and potential "beautification" projects. By 1970, the problems of Pioneer Square were actively considered within a number of city initiatives, including the planning surrounding the construction of the Kingdome, which was completed in 1976. The Pioneer Square Preservation District, which included the Cadillac Hotel, was designated in 1970.

Historic designation did not, unfortunately, coincide immediately with wide spread restoration of neglected buildings. The Cadillac Hotel, like many others of its kind in the downtown area, were closed to business above their first floors due to a 1970 city ordinance. In that year, a fire at the downtown Ozark Hotel killed 21 people, and City Council responded with a requirement that hotels either install sprinkler systems or close their doors. Many opted for the latter. The economic climate in Seattle in the 1970s was dismal. Boeing busted, and many were out of work.

The economy slowly recovered, and more people took an interest in historic preservation. Throughout the city, individuals and organizations nominated the city's most exceptional buildings for landmark status, and many took advantage of local and federal tax credits to offset the cost of restoration. Yet the edge of Pioneer Square, near the Cadillac Hotel, saw little of this preservation fervor. The blocks immediately south of the King County Courthouse and north of Union Station remain "in transition."

Historic Seattle's purchase of the building starts a new chapter in the Cadillac's story. The preservation and restoration of the historic hotel promises a much brighter future for this somewhat shabby corner of our city and country's first historic district.