Hahn Building/Hotel Elliott at 1st and Pike Submitted for Landmark Consideration

The grassroots non-profit group SaveTheMarketEntrance.org announced today that the group has submitted the Hahn Building/Hotel Elliott located at 103 Pike Street for landmark consideration. The landmark nomination is submitted for consideration at the end of a required 5-year period since the City of Seattle Landmark Preservation Board last took action in 2014 on the Hahn Building/Hotel Elliott. 
 
Built in 1897 with an addition in 1908, the Hahn Building/Hotel Elliott is located at the prominent Seattle intersection of First and Pike, at the main entrance to Pike Place Market. Pike Place Market is on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Pike Market Historic District and is designated as part of the City of Seattle Landmark District. 

The century-old Hahn Building currently faces demolition in order for construction plans to proceed on a 14-story hotel at this location. A SaveTheMarketEntrance.org petition first launched through Change.org in 2017 has received over 88,000 signatures in support of preserving the existing human scale and symmetry of the historic Market entrance and protesting redevelopment of this southeast corner with a contemporary hotel/mixed use building.  

The historic timeline of the existing structure goes back to the early 1880s arrival of Robert Hahn. In 1889 Hahn operated a wood-frame saloon and beer garden on the site.  In 1897 Hahn then built the structure under nomination as a one-story, brick building.  In 1907, construction started on a two story addition to the existing structure just as the Pike Place Market was also established.

When the building reopened in 1908, the single room occupancy Hotel Elliott occupied the upper two floors and commercial storefronts operated from the first floor. Since that time, the building has hosted a number of commercial ventures—from long-time tenant Owl Drugs to the infamous International Donut Shop.

In 1981, the City of Seattle allocated $500,000 to renovate the existing Hahn Building/Hotel Elliott building structure with seismic retrofitting and as affordable housing. Hotel rooms continue to occupy the upper two floors operating as the Green Tortoise Hostel since 2005.

The Hahn Building/Hotel Elliott remains a readily identifiable visual feature of the First and Pike intersection which is characterized by 2-3 story historic buildings on all four corners. The retained brick paving and buildings on the outer four corners of the intersection communicate the importance of this intersection as a pedestrian zone extension from the Pike Place Market.

SaveTheMarketEntrance.org
Change.org petition

Media inquiries: Justine Ketola (323)251-0542
                           amadoriartists@gmail.com