Mutual Life Building - Pioneer Square-Skid Road District - Seattle, WA
N 47° 36.118 W 122° 20.058
10T E 550038 N 5272277
Mutual Life Building is located on 1st Avenue and part of historic Pioneer Square, known as Seattle's 'first neighborhood'.
Waymark Code: WMG78W
Location: Washington, United States
Date Posted: 01/23/2013
Views: 8
Visitors to the historic
Pioneer Square are surrounded with many historical buildings and structures, many of which contain plaques and monuments strategically placed throughout the square to attest to this
plaza's volatile history over the decades. The Mutual Life Building is one of those structures that stand blend in well amongst the other buildings of this square.
The
Mutual Life Building, formerly known as the
Yesler Building, is one of many contributing buildings (ID #30) in the Pioneer Square Skid-Road District. The NPS.gov's
PDF datasheet description for this contributing site (pp. 55-66) says the following about this building:
The building, originally called the "Yesler Building" and subsequently the Mutual Life Building, was built on the approximate site of Henry Yesler's cookhouse, which served as Seattle's first public space and restaurant. Henry Yesler commissioned Elmer Fisher to design this building as well as the Bank of Commerce Building, now confusingly called the "Yesler Building." Emil DeNeuf is now credited with the design of the upper floors in 1892-93, and Robertson & Blackwell for the 1904 (or circa 1904) rear addition to the west and for the redesign of the cornice of the original building, which was modified to be horizontal. Henry Yesler was one of Seattle's early founding settlers, and an influential early Seattle entrepreneur and owner of prime real estate in the area around Pioneer Place and north of Yesler Way. He owned Seattle's first steam mill and operated his famous cookhouse, a grist mill as well as a general store. Two of the four mills he owned were located west of the site of this building.
In 1892, five floors were added, according to a design by Emil DeNeuf. DeNeuf did not follow Fisher's original design exactly, although he was responsible for two towers. Instead he created a more unified design of repeated arches. Based on other works such as the Lowman and Hanford Building and the First A venue South fa9ade of the Schwabacher Building, the more unified design and the use of light colored brick, seem to be hallmarks of DeNeufs work. The upper parts of the sixth level of the building were lost during the 1949 Earthquake, oddly enough giving even more consistency to DeNeufs design. In some historical studies, James Blackwell is credited with the five floors, added by DeNeuf. More recent studies credit Robertson and Blackwell for the western addition near the Post Hotel and a new horizontal cornice for the original building.
In 1895, the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York bought the building and it has been named the Mutual Life Building (or some variation on this name, since that time). This insurance company occupied the southeast corner of the second floor until l916. The main floor was occupied was the First National Bank, which incorporated on this site in 1892 and in 1929 merged with other local Seattle banks, the Dexter Horton Bank (originally in the Maynard Building) and the Seattle National Bank to form the Seattle-First National Bank, then Washington State's largest financial institution.
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There is a historical marker that is monumented on the front of the building facing 1st Avenue near the main entrance and was placed by the Assistance League of Seattle. It says:
MUTUAL LIFE BUILDING
1897
This modified Romanesque Revival building of brick and terra cotta complements the nearby Pioneer Building. It has been home to such varied businesses as a speakeasy (1920s), elegant cigar store (1930s), and ice cream parlor. Site of Henry Yesler’s Cookhouse (1854-66) and First National Bank (1882).
Donated by the Assistance League of Seattle