In March 1915, local lumber baron and businessman C. D. Stimson leased lots on the northeast corner of Fifth Avenue and Pike Street to the newly formed Coliseum Company to build an elegant theater designed specifically for movies, then called photoplays.
The Coliseum remained Seattle's premier movie house into the 1980s, when it lost out to suburban multiplexes. It closed in 1990 but was reborn as a Banana Republic store in 1994 with some of its original elegance still intact. Since the Banana Republic closed in 2020, during the Covid pandemic, the space has seen limited retail and gallery use.
This image shows the Coliseum marquee in 1967. The two movies, "Spree" and "The Trip" were released that year.
Caption information source: Seattle Daily Times, March 7, 1915, page 1; Seattle Daily Times, May 9, 1915, page 5; Seattle Daily Times, January 2, 1916, page 24. Caption information source: “Seattle’s historic Coliseum Theatre, old Banana Republic Store, to get new life”, by Caption information source: HistoryLink.org Essay 2538.
ID Number: 1980.7067.1.11.1
Date: Circa 1967
Physical Description: 1 slide : color ; 2.25 x 2.25 in.
