Colman Automotive Building

The story

Written by AI from this property's National Register nomination and the record above; every sentence is checked against its sources before it appears here. Corrections: privacy@treealive.com

The Colman Automotive Building is a commercial building at 401 E. Pine St. in Seattle, King County, built in 1915-1916 by builder Hans Pederson in the Commercial Style of Seattle's Auto Row. It is attributed to Webster & Ford Architects and was listed in the National Register in 2013.

Why it's listed

It was listed under criteria A and C, with local significance in commerce and architecture. Its period of significance runs from 1916 to 1944, reflecting the building's exclusive auto-oriented use across those years.

Physical character

The building has a concrete foundation and frame, with walls of brick, cast iron, concrete and wood, and a roof of wood planking on wood purlins. Its storefront has tempered glass units and cast iron columns, with brick piers rising to plastered concrete caps below a parapet with scroll brackets. A drive-through gas pump area was added by 1937, and skylights shown in the original 1916 drawings were never installed.

Historical context

The building was used exclusively for auto-related businesses from 1916 to 1944, and later housed Gallagher Motors Auto Dealers in 1948-1949. It was a General Petroleum Museum in the 1990s until that use ended in 2003, and the property was bought by Colman Automotive Building LLC in 2012.