Reminder of a different time – the Bon Marche livery stables – might be lost

Most people walking or driving along Western Avenue probably barely notice the unusual, but tattered and tired-looking, three-story wooden warehouse between Battery and Bell streets.

It is the last example of livery stables that were once common in downtown Seattle for shoppers and travelers to “park” their horses while doing business or staying the night.

The building, which later was headquarters for the Compton Lumber Co., is also one of the last remaining clapboard building in downtown where they were once plentiful, according to a landmarks nomination.

Known as the Bon Marche stables, the 101-year-old, three-story, wood-frame building was recently declared a landmark, but after a recent city hearing examiner decision, the owners will be allowed to tear it down, anyway.

Seattle City Council members approved the change to the livery landmark status this week, but with a clear disappointment and a plea to the property owner to try to preserve the building if at all possible.

“I would appeal to the public spirit of the property owners to find a creative way to reuse this building,” Councilman Tom Rasmussen said during the Monday council meeting. “We have seen others successfully restored, and a lot of the time they are more attractive as rentals than any new building that has been put up in its place.

“My pledge is to help you in any way I can if you choose to do so,” he said.  

The building, now known as the Compton Building, is owned by Allegra Properties and Sunrise Investment Co. and is rented out to individual tenants, including artists and contractors who use the space mainly for storage, according to the hearing examiner’s report.  

advertisement

At its meeting Jan. 16, 2008, the city’s Landmarks Preservation Board voted 6-4 to designate the building as a landmark and imposed certain controls that, among other things, would prevent the building from being modified or demolished.

In a decision late last year, Hearing Examiner Anne Watanabe recommended that no controls be imposed on what the owners can do to the building.

“The evidence shows that the net return and rate of returns, under any plausible renovation scenario with controls, would be negative. The proposed controls in this case would therefore prevent the owner from realizing a reasonable return in the property,” Watanabe said in her decision.

Councilwoman Sally Clark said she hasn’t heard of any immediate plans for the building.

“I think you will see a new building appear there in a five-year time frame,” Clark said.  It (the decision) does open the door for the building to be demolished.”

The area between Battery and Bell streets is zoned “downtown mixed residential/commercial,” suggesting there is a higher and better use for the land than rented warehouse space.

When landmark designation was being considered for the building, architectural historian Susan Boyle told the board that in 1900, there were 54 stables listed in the Polk City Directory; by 1911, there were about eight left.

At the time the Bon Marche stables were built, the Bon was a dry-goods store at First Avenue and Cedar Street.  It later expanded and moved to Second Avenue and Pike Street.