Perhaps you have noticed that the building on the southeast corner of Broadway and East Pine Street and its new coat of paint? That's the Booth Building, now known as Seattle Central Community College's South Annex. The paint work and repairs are just in time to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the building.
The Booth Building, permitted in 1906 and likely constructed in 1907, was an early mixed-use brick and concrete building constructed on Broadway. Designed by the architecture firm of Thompson & Thompson (C.L. and C.B. Thompson) and constructed by Layton & White Contractors, the building was the creation of the doctors John R. and William G. Booth.
1907 was a banner year for building construction in Seattle, part of the building boom that gave us the shape our built environment on Capitol Hill. The Booth Building was typical of the neighborhood. It offered homes, studios and performance spaces on the upper floors to musicians and artists for a large part of its history. The street level storefronts were home to grocery stores, banks and automobile parts suppliers. Now one of the oldest mixed-use buildings on Broadway, the Booth Building still provides shelter for students courtesy Seattle Central Community College, it's current owner.
The Doctors Booth, as they are called in the historical records, arrived in Seattle about 1900 and practiced medicine for some years in the Alaska Building, and speculated in real estate along with numerous other people at the time. They were both trained in four-year medical colleges (unusual for those days) and took an interest in public health.
Dr. J.R. Booth, for instance, visited San Francisco to study the bubonic plague in 1903 and made a report to the City Council and Health Department. Dr. W. G. Booth was involved in the continuing effort during the early part of the 1900s to ensure a healthy (meaning tuberculosis free) milk supply.
Both doctors were active in the King County Medical Association, and Dr. J.R. Booth was its president in 1909. Dr. William Booth and his wife raised two children in Seattle and lived the rest of their lives in the city. Dr. J.R. Booth returned to the Bay Area where he had gone to medical school and settled with his family there.
But in 1907, while Seattle was growing and building, the bubonic plague struck. On October 19, Seattle resident Leong Sheng died of the disease, and there were two other plague-related deaths that year. A massive round up of rats was conducted by the U.S. Public Health Service, and in November 1907, Seattle passed two ordinances to address sanitary conditions and combat the plague.
Rats, and the plague itself, were one of the prices paid for becoming an active port - neither were known in the Seattle area until after the 1850s.
Dotty Decoster lives on Capitol Hill and can be reached at editor@ capitolhilltimes.com.[[In-content Ad]]
