King County Landmarks: County-City Building - King County Courthouse (1916), Seattle

See Additional Media
Address: 3rd Avenue and James Street, Seattle. The King County Courthouse is a dignified example of early twentieth century civic architecture in the Beaux-Arts style. In 1931, 10 stories were added to the 1916 four story building to bring the courthouse to its current height.

Prominent local architect A. Warren Gould guided the first phase of construction; architects Henry Bittman and J. L. McCauley managed the second phase. A major remodeling in the 1960s intended to capture the spirit of urban renewal and cosmetically disguise the building’s true age destroyed many original features of the elegant marble-clad lobbies and entrance portals.

Until 1962, the County-City Building accommodated the offices of King County and City of Seattle government. Today (2000) the building houses offices of the County Executive, County Council, and County court system.


Sources: King County Landmarks and Heritage Commission.

Licensing: This essay is licensed under a Creative Commons license that encourages reproduction with attribution. Credit should be given to both HistoryLink.org and to the author, and sources must be included with any reproduction. Click the icon for more info. Please note that this Creative Commons license applies to text only, and not to images. For more information regarding individual photos or images, please contact the source noted in the image credit.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License
Major Support for HistoryLink.org Provided By: The State of Washington | Patsy Bullitt Collins | Paul G. Allen Family Foundation | Museum Of History & Industry | 4Culture (King County Lodging Tax Revenue) | City of Seattle | City of Bellevue | City of Tacoma | King County | The Peach Foundation | Microsoft Corporation, Other Public and Private Sponsors and Visitors Like You