August Niklasson Brand (1862-1950) and Anna Amelia (Erlandson) Brand (1869-1952), were Swedish immigrants who married in 1893 in Seattle. In 1903, August and Anna bought the Western Hotel (aka, The Michigan), which was built around 1880 and located at the corner of Sixth Avenue and James Street. They renamed it the Hotel Kalmar, after Anna's home town in Sweden, and catered mostly to working men, offering rooms by the day, week, and month. After August and Anna's deaths, their children Beata Viola Maria Brand (1895-1981) and Leonard August Gabriel Brand (1902-1969) (a third child, Garfield died young in 1903), continued to run the hotel until it was demolished in 1962 to clear space for Interstate 5.
This business card advertising the Hotel Kalmar boasts that it is "strictly modern" with "all the modern improvements" such as washstands, rockers, and plush carpets.
Caption information source: "Now & Then - Seattle's Kalmar Hotel," by Paul Dorpat, HistoryLink.org Essay 2571 Caption information source: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/116507718/anna_amelia-brand
ID Number: 1981.7328.178
Date: Circa 1910
Physical Description: 1 card : b&w ; 4.75 x 2.75 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. View the finding aid for this collection at https://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:80444/xv01947
