Van Vorst Building (1909-1915)

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415 Boren Avenue N

This brick warehouse was constructed by the J. M. Colman Company in the Mission Revival style sometime between 1909 and 1915. From 1915 until 1923 the building was used as a furniture warehouse and/or outlet by Frederick & Nelson Department Store. The basement may have served as a livery stable for the store's delivery-wagon horses. In an early photograph of the Frederick & Nelson delivery teams and wagons lined up in front of this building, a sign reading "Club Stables" is clearly visible, indicating that for some period the Van Vorst Building was probably known by that name. Lambert Transfer and Storage Company was a tenant in from 1923 to 1929 and West Coast Furniture Manufacturing Company from 1937 to 1940. From 1941 to 1974 the C. B. Van Vorst mattress factory occupied the facility, giving the building the name by which it is most commonly now known.

After Van Vorst vacated, the building sat empty for more than two decades, except on occasion when it was used to house a Halloween haunted house sponsored by a Seattle radio station. On November 1, 2000, the Van Vorst Building was designated a City of Seattle Landmark.

By Paula Becker, September 25, 2012

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Club Stables/Van Vorst Mattress Factory Building, Seattle, ca. 1915
Courtesy Fredrick and Nelson Archives

Van Vorst Building (1909-1915), Seattle, May 19, 2007
HistoryLink.org photo by Paula Becker