This view of the southeast corner of First Avenue and University Street in downtown Seattle features the Hotel Diller at 1220 First Avenue. The hotel was designed by Louis L. Mendel, Sr. (1867-1940), for businessman Leonard Diller (1839-1901), opening in 1890 during a period of reconstruction after the Great Fire of 1889.
This building is one of only two hotels built during the period that still stand on First Avenue. The building continues to operate as an apartment hotel called The Diller. In 2009 the Diller Room, a craft cocktail bar, opened in the space that variously housed the Hotel Diller lobby, a Prohibition Era speakeasy fronted by a ground floor Chinese laundry, and the infamous post-WWII Flamingo Bar, where Seattle's businessmen, politicians, and underworld figures met to make deals and visit their mistresses.
Businesses in image: Hotel Hobart Signs in image: America's Favorite, Tom Moore Cigar This photograph is part of an album titled "Views of Businesses and Buildings, Area: Pine to Madison, 4th to Western."
Caption information source: Pacific Coast Architecture Database Caption information source: The Diller Room website
ID Number: 1972.5346.14
Date: Circa 1903
Physical Description: 1 photographic print on linen backing : b&w ; 5 x 7.5 in.
Additional Information: Digital copy of this item available thanks to funding from a 2016 Institute for Museum and Library Services grant. Metadata updated as part of a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services administered by the Library Services and Technology Act, through the Washington State Library, a division of the Office of the Secretary of State.
Credit: MOHAI, Seattle Businesses and Buildings Photograph Album, 1972.5346.14
