About Quizzes

Times Building

The Times Building, located at the intersection of Olive Way and Sewart Street, at 414 Olive Way, housed the business, editorial, and printing functions of one of Seattle's prominent newspapers. The Blethen family purchased the Times in 1896. Colonel Alden J. Blethen added such innovative sections to the paper as society, theater, and fraternal columns, which boosted circulation over the following 19 years. In 1915, needing more room, the expanding paper moved to a larger building. The new site had better natural light, and enabled the architects to cover every elevation with beige terra-cotta decorative architectural elements. The building was constructed with the ability to add four more stories in anticipation of later expansion, and a heavily insulated ground floor so that the printing machines would not distract those working upstairs. After the move, two popular new services were instituted by the paper that further solidified its niche in the rapidly growing city. It prophetically offered an information line, where a battery of telephone operators fielded questions on any topic, from the size of the pyramids to trolley departure schedules. By 1931, the circulation of the paper grew too large for the building. A new plant was built in the northeast corner of the city and the original building passed to other hands. Though no longer used for its original purpose, the Times Building remains an office building notable for its elegant exterior.