Address2:

City

Seattle

State/Province:

WA

Zip/Postal Code:

Country:

USA

Updated:

2021-09-21

Interior Picture

Exterior Present

Pike St. 1928-1946, 2511-2521 5th. Ave. NE 1947-1949, then Snyder 1950, Van Pelt 1951, Van Pelt 919, Olive Way 1952 and Metropolitan 1953-1954

A member of a Seattle-based Citroen club put together a detailed history of the interesting building that housed this Packard dealership. It can be found in the following link if you scroll way down. There are some rare photos of the building in its early days. https://www.seattlecitroen.net/the-1960-s

The building at 1124 Pike Street was constructed in 1920, custom- built as a Packard dealership. It was designed to be one of Seattle's most elaborately ornamented auto dealerships, befitting of Packard’s luxury image. The building is nicely sited to take advantage of a key intersection in Seattle; that of Pike Street, Minor Avenue, and Melrose Avenue, just a few steps east of the downtown core of the city. The Packard dealership remained in the building for about 25 years, but left in the mid-1940’s as Packard’s star was fading. For the next half century, the building experienced a succession of various car dealerships. After Packard left, the building was a dealership for Kaiser cars called Hawthorne-Wilkins Motors which appeared in about 1946. Shortly after that, there is a listing for Western Motors selling Kaiser-Fraser cars. In 1954, the Seattle phone books list it as The Auto Warehouse selling used cars. In 1959 a business called Import Motors Co. occupied the building selling Fiat and German Borgward cars. In 1963 and 1964, the building is listed as vacant which is sad considering its grand heritage. In 1965, Paul Jolley leased the building for Automobiles Internationales. Unfortunately, Jolley’s endeavor only lasted three years. After Jolley’s Citroën/Fiat dealership collapsed in 1968, the building remained in use as various automotive dealerships, including British Motors in 1968-1969, Downtown Datsun from 1970-1977, and Metro Imports in 1979 (Fiat-Lancia). In the mid- 1980’s, the building housed Metro Mazda, followed by Bayside Jeep Eagle in the late 1980’s. In the 1990’s and early 2000’s, the main part of the building was no longer in the automotive trade and instead contained an Art Supply store with Seattle Volvo in the west side of the building. The building has recently gone through perhaps its biggest transformation. In 2014, it was taken over by the Starbucks Corporation and converted into the swanky Starbucks Reserve Roastery & Tasting Room. While the exterior of the building has remained intact over the last 100 years, the interior has changed dramatically. Fortunately, Starbucks’s architects made an attempt to save and restore parts of the original interior, such as the Terrazzo floors and to re-expose the wooden beams in the ceiling. The Starbucks Roastery is a place where you can experience coffee production from the un-roasted bean all the way through the roasting process until it pours into your coffee cup. Food and Starbucks promotional items are also available. It is quite striking. Go visit sometime.