Archives West Finding Aid

Benjamin F. McAdoo (1920-1981) was born in Pasadena, California in 1920. He established the first African American-owned architecture firm in Seattle and was the first African American man to practice architecture in Washington State. He was a local community leader and advocate for the advancement of low-income resident housing solutions.

McAdoo’s architectural education began at the University of Southern California before transferring to the University of Washington. Working nights and attending daytime classes, he received a bachelor’s degree in architecture in 1946, the first African American person to receive an architecture degree from the University of Washington. In 1947 McAdoo launched his firm, Benjamin F. McAdoo & Company, out of his house in Capitol Hill before moving to an office on Howell Street, and later Olive Street in Seattle. McAdoo’s first commissions were small in scale, including community churches, building renovations, and private residences, but the private homes brought McAdoo popular recognition. In 1955 and 1956 McAdoo’s designs were featured in The Seattle Times as the “Home of the Month,” as selected by the newspaper and the Washington State chapter of the American Institute of Architects. Some well-known residences in the Seattle area designed by McAdoo include those of John P. Browning (1946), Donald Hochberg (1954), Kenneth Ota (1956), and George Hage (1956). McAdoo's personal residence (1957-1958) stands as a prime example of his residential design ideals. At 17803 28th Avenue South in Bothell, McAdoo's house illustrates his approach to Northwest regionalism with its open structure, generous use of glass to connect the building to the natural environment, use of Western red cedar, and strong horizontal lines of the building's profile to accentuate the link with the relatively flat site.

McAdoo's interest in low-cost housing led him to design modular housing in Jamaica for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) from 1961-1962. This successful design could be easily assembled by unskilled workers, and was widely manufactured within the country. When he returned to the U.S., he worked in Washington, D.C. where he helped establish the Latin American Division of the USAID before transferring to the General Service Administration’s Public Building Services. He returned to Seattle in 1964 and worked in the Auburn office of Public Building Services. He maintained a private office in Seattle concurrently, and resumed his full-time practice in the late 1960s.

During the three decades of his prolific and diverse architectural career, McAdoo designed churches, single and multifamily dwellings, as well as commercial and institutional works. His late career designs and renovations included Seattle's First National Branch Bank in Wedgwood (1970), Southcenter Branch of the King County Central Blood Bank (1970), Seattle Fire Station No. 29 (1972), the Queen Anne Swimming Pool (1978), and work for the University of Washington, including its Ethnic Cultural Center (1972).

McAdoo was also heavily involved in Seattle’s African American community. In 1954 he ran for state representative in Seattle’s 37th District as a Democrat, clinching the nomination in the primary contest before being disqualified on a residential technicality. He served as president of the Seattle chapter of the NAACP, and provided regular commentary on social issues for Seattle’s public radio station, KUOW, from 1974-1979.

Benjamin McAdoo worked steadily until his death in 1981. His partners renamed the firm McAdoo, Malcom & Youel in honor of its founder, and continued for two more decades.

www.blackpast.org, dahp.wa.gov, historylink.org, sah-archipedia.org, rolludaarchitects.com, Shaping Seattle Architecture: A historical guide to the architects.