page_title: William E. Boone
section_title: Seattle, Boone and Meeker
hierarchical_section_title: William E. Boone / Seattle, Boone and Meeker
caption_attribution_description: English: Photograph of illustration. Caption on image: Schwabacher Building Yesler Avenue On verso of image: Pre-fire Schwabacher Bldg., E. Fisher, architect Subjects (LCTGM): Schwabacher Building (Seattle, Wash.)--Drawings; Buildings--Washington (State)--Seattle--Drawings Subjects (LCSH): Second Avenue (Seattle, Wash.); Wagons--Washington (State)--Seattle; Pioneer Square-Skid Road Historic District (Seattle, Wash.); Central business districts--Washington (State)--Seattle
context_page_description: William Boone was an American architect who practiced mainly in Seattle, Washington from 1882 until 1905. He was one of the founders of the Washington State chapter of the American Institute of Architects as well as its first president. For the majority of the 1880s, he practiced with George Meeker as Boone and Meeker, Seattle's leading architectural firm at the time. In his later years he briefly worked with William H. Willcox as Boone and Willcox and later with James Corner as Boone and Corner. Boone was one of Seattle's most prominent pre-fire architects whose career lasted into the early 20th century outlasting many of his peers. Few of his buildings remain standing today, many were destroyed in the Great Seattle fire including one of his most well known commissions, the Yesler – Leary Building. He also designed a house for Henry Yesler as well as many of Seattle's earliest brick buildings, some still standing in the Pioneer Square district.
context_section_description: He returned to Seattle permanently in 1881 where he worked between there and Tacoma. In 1883, he formed the partnership of Boone and Meeker with George Meeker of Oakland, California, who is thought to have remained in Oakland for the majority of their partnership. In Seattle, Boone designed mostly commercial buildings, being responsible for most of the city's earliest brick buildings.
  In 1883, his design was chosen for Henry Yesler and John Leary's business block at the corner of Front (First) Street and Mill (Yesler) Street. The design, based on San Francisco's original Phelan Block (1878–1881, destroyed) featured high Italianate and Second Empire detail and a prominent octagonal turret. It was described by local newspapers as Seattle's "finest building and symbolic of the city's new metropolitan character." Boone and Meeker located their offices in the new building where they remained until the fire. Boone planned a four-story addition to the Yesler – Leary Building but as Seattle's first building boom began to wind down in 1884, these plans were shelved. The building was eventually built by Boone in 1888 but only at three floors and in a more subtle style.
  At the same time as the Yesler – Leary Building, Boone was also preparing plans for a new residence for Henry Yesler. Completed in 1884, it was categorized as Eastlake style but combined elements of Victorian, Queen Anne and Eastlake. The home occupied an entire city block and was Seattle's largest home at the time. During 1884, Boone and Meeker shifted their focus to Tacoma, which had recently been selected as Northern Pacific Railway's West Coast terminus over Seattle, prompting a building boom there while Seattle's waned. There they designed the Annie Wright School and several other commercial and residential structures.
  By 1887, Seattle's economy began to rebound and construction activity was picking back up. Boone and Meeker resumed their position as the city's leading architectural office with several large commercial projects. By the late 1880s, architectural trends in the Northwest were catching up with the east coast, moving away from the highly decorated Italianate buildings clad in stucco and cast iron and more towards rusticated stone and exposed brick. This was reflected in one of the firm's first projects of 1887, the Toklas & Singerman Building at the Southwest corner of First and Columbia Streets. The following year, Boone oversaw the construction of one of Seattle's first modern office buildings, the Boston Block at Second and Columbia. Massive in size and practically unadorned, it reflected the influence of the Chicago School on Boone. The Boston Block housed the city's first passenger elevator and was one of the very few buildings in downtown to survive the great fire in 1889. In 1888 the firm submitted two different designs in a bid for Seattle's first two brick school houses. The school district wound up choosing both. Boone and Meekers first buildings in 1889 included the Ramona Hotel at 1st and Seneca Street (now demolished) and the I.O.O.F. Building in Belltown, one of his earliest surviving designs.
caption: Schwabacher Building (1883, Destroyed)
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