Seattle History on the Chopping Block
Will Seattle realize what it’s got before it’s gone?
For over 120 years, the Hahn Building has stood at the southeast corner of Pike Place Market, its scale and design indistinguishable from the pleasing but humble Market buildings that draw 10 million visitors annually and rank 33rd among the most visited tourist destinations in the world.
It’s a formula that seems to be working. As one of the four buildings anchoring the Market’s iconic cobblestone intersection, you might think the Hahn’s place in history is secure. Not in Seattle.
The Hahn falls on the east side of First Ave. just outside the Market boundary which makes it game for developers. Now the Hahn, which once offered single room lodging for working class people, is set to be replaced with a 14-story glass and steel luxury hotel.
Enter Save the Market Entrance or STME, a grass roots group that gathered a coalition of preservationists and Market lovers to convince Seattle’s Landmark Preservation Board to nominate the building for Landmark status last week. The Hahn had been nominated twice before but this time the Board received over 130 letters and verbal comments in support of making it a landmark, and they said that made a difference.
Despite its nomination, the fight to preserve the Hahn has just begun. Lacking the name recognition of its neighbor the Showbox theater, STME is asking the public to stand up for history and the Hahn before the Board decides next month whether to designate it a Landmark. As with the nomination hearing, a team of attorneys, consultants and individuals will stand on the opposite side, claiming as one man did, “We need a beautiful hotel at this corner!”
No doubt, luxury hotels have their place—there are literally four of them currently standing within one block of the Hahn. But if the goal is to preserve Seattle history and show the market’s origins to future generations this is a gut check moment.
The four corners of the Market entrance have endured for over a century. Their authenticity attracts locals and visitors from around the world and are enshrined in millions of photographs and memories each year.
Destroying one of its original pillars is akin to removing the music studio at Abbey Road crossing to replace it with an Abbey Road Hotel.
If we lose the Hahn we forever lose a sense of place and over a century of history that can’t be reclaimed through photographs and a plaque.
If you want to save the Hahn, here’s what you can do now:
Email Sarah Sodt, City of Seattle historic preservation officer, asking the Preservation Board to designate the Hahn as a Landmark. This must be done before Friday, January 15, 2021
Comment virtually or by phone at the Hahn’s designation hearing on Wednesday, January 20, 2021. Sign up is on the agenda, posted one week before the meeting on the Department of Neighborhoods’ website or contact the City’s Historic Preservation Office at (206) 684-0228
Like or share posts with Save the Market Entrance on Facebook & Instagram
Visit Historic Seattle’s Save the Market Entrance website or email naomiw@historicseattle.org for more information on the Hahn’s history or how best to comment
