Archives West Finding Aid

After a tumultuous past, the Hotel Washington (also known as the Washington Hotel), advertised as “The Scenic Hotel of the West,” opened in May 1903, only to be demolished in 1907, with the carving away of the south summit of Denny Hill, part of the famous Denny Regrade.

In 1889, building a hotel atop of Denny Hill, 200 feet above street level, was conceived by a group of developers including Seattle founding father Arthur Denny (1822-1899), and the structure was named the Denny Hotel after him. The Victorian Gothic styled hotel straddled 3rd Ave between Virginia Street and Stewart Street, on the south summit of Denny Hill, with the front door facing Stewart Street.

Soon after construction began in 1890, squabbling among the developers, coupled with the economic crash of 1893 halted the project, leaving the hotel empty and the interiors incomplete. For the next decade, the turreted shell hung over Seattle from atop Denny Hill.

In May, 1903, renamed the Hotel Washington, the old empty structure was finally opened to the fanfare of Teddy Roosevelt as the first guest, after being purchased and finished by developer James A. Moore (1861-1929). Once the Denny Regrade began, no streets led up to the hotel, but the shortest counterbalanced cable car line in the world carried the guests and luggage up 200 feet to the grand entrance. The hotel was six stories high with 100 rooms, decorated with massive furniture, oriental rugs, ornate square pillars and detailed wood paneling.

The Hotel Washington flourished for the next three years. Then, thanks to the Denny Regrade, the classy closing party for the elegant hotel was held on May 7, 1906. By 1907 the hotel was gone, with the western part of Denny Hill leveled by the massive regrading project. Although Moore resisted the regrade, in the end, he agreed to cooperate and on the new leveled land, he built his namesake Moore Theater at 2nd Avenue and Virginia Street.

During the demolishing of the Hotel Washington, the Washington Hotel Annex was being built by G. Henry Whitcomb and opened in 1907, even before work on the New Hotel Washington had started. In 1908, the replacement New Washington Hotel was built by real estate investors James Crawford Marmaduke and J.E. Chilberg (1867-1954), with several stockholders. At the corner of 2nd Ave and Stewart, standing 13 stories high and featuring 275 guest rooms, it was built at a cost of more than $1.8 million for both the real estate and furnishings and still stands today.