District 1 City Councilmember Lisa Herbold shared via her newsletter the news that the Crescent-Hamm Building in the West Seattle Junction will receive its designation as a landmark via vote of the Seattle City Council on Monday.

Herbold writes:

As Seattle grows, it’s critically important to maintain connections to our past. Seattle’s Historic Preservation program, in effect since 1973, has designated more than 450 sites as landmarks, helping us to preserve our heritage.

On Monday, the Full Council will vote to complete the landmark designation process for the Crescent-Hamm Building in the Alaska Junction. The Finance and Neighborhoods Committee voted to approve the legislation earlier this week.

The Crescent-Hamm Building was completed in 1926, and is located on the northwest corner of Alaska and California. It’s the location of Easy Street Records and other businesses.

The Landmarks Preservation Board earlier approved the designation as a historic landmark in February 2017 and found that it met three of the six criteria for landmark status (only one is needed for landmark status):

• It is associated in a significant way with a significant aspect of the cultural, political, or economic heritage of the community, City, state or nation; 
• It embodies the distinctive visible characteristics of an architectural style, or period, or of a method of construction; 
• Because of its prominence of spatial location, contrasts of siting, age, or scale, it is an easily identifiable visual feature of its neighborhood or the City and contributes to the distinctive quality or identity of such neighborhood or the City. 

The Council’s vote will impose controls on the exterior of the building, the final step in the landmarks process. Here’s a link to the report of the Landmarks Preservation Board.

The Council earlier voted to approve landmark status for the Campbell Building in December, across the street. Both nominations came thanks to the work of the Southwest Seattle Historical Study Group, a collaboration of the SW Seattle Historical Society, SW District Council, West Seattle Junction Association, the Junction  Association (JuNO), and ArtsWest.

Many thanks to all of them for their work to help preserve our heritage in West Seattle!