William E. Boone

William Ely Boone was born in Pennsylvania on September 3, 1830 and was raised there.[2] He moved to Chicago as a young man and worked in construction as a carpenter for a railroad company before becoming involved with building design in Minneapolis around 1853. In 1859 he relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area, where he worked as a journeyman architect-builder-contractor. He only appears in the 1859 & 1860 San Francisco city directories, where he is listed as residing in the famous What Cheer House. He first arrived in the Puget Sound region in 1870 where he appears in the 1870 United States Census as residing in Olympia, Washington.[3] While there he designed several small structures in and around that city and oversaw the design and construction of the federal prison at nearby McNeil Island, Washington.[4] He took an active role in the local Masonic lodge and was married in 1872 to local school teacher Mercie Slocum.[5] Boone returned to the bay area periodically throughout the 1870s where he acted as contractor on public schools, homes, and several buildings for the California School for the Blind, all under the supervision of other architects.[6]

Boone relocated to Seattle permanently in 1881 where he worked on projects 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.[4] In Seattle, Boone designed mostly commercial buildings, being responsible for most of the city's earliest brick buildings.

Schwabacher Building (1883, Destroyed)

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.[7][8] 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.[8]

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.[9] 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.[10] 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.[11] 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.[10]

New York Block (1891-2, Demolished)

Following the destruction of his offices in the Yesler – Leary Building in the Great Seattle Fire, Boone moved the firm's offices into the Boston Block that was largely undamaged. By 1890, Boone was entering his 60s and his designs were becoming dated.[12] His partnership with Meeker was dissolved in 1889 and he was once again a solo architect.

The building boom following the great Seattle fire attracted many younger architects with fresh ideas such as the prolific Elmer Fisher to the area who soon unseated Boone as Seattle's top architect. Boone was still a respected architect in the Northwest and continued to receive sizable commissions, designing such buildings as the identical McKenny & Marshall–Walker Buildings in Olympia and Seattle, respectively, and the massive 7-story New York Block, Seattle's first steel-frame skyscraper.[13][14] The New York Block was credited to the short-lived firm of Boone and William Willcox from 1891 to 1892 but the design is largely credited to Boone.[15] Boone moved his offices into the New York Block following its completion. These later buildings displayed a more simplified design along the lines of Romanesque Revival architecture that emerged in the late 1880s, shaped by the influence of Henry Hobson Richardson, as well as Burnham and Root and other architects of the Chicago School, much in contrast to most of Boone's previous work and architectural knowledge.[16] Boone and Willcox were also architects of the Plymouth Congregational Church, a building that reflected Willcox's previous experience in church design in the American Midwest.[17]

In 1891, Boone and Willcox were selected to plan the new campus for the University of Washington. The plan that included 16 buildings was halted after ten days of construction as a result of flaws in the legislation that created the university. Boone and Willcox dissolved their partnership in June 1892 and when construction resumed on the university in 1893, the firm's plans were dropped in favor of a competition for a single main building won by Charles Saunders.[18]

Boone, as well as most architects during the time, had little work in the years following the Panic of 1893 and effectively retired, putting his focus on matters of the Seattle Chamber of commerce, of which he was a member. It appears he only designed several small residences and one commercial building during this time.[1] In 1894, he helped instigate the Washington State chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), laying the foundation for the architecture profession in Washington. Boone was elected the chapter's first president.[19] In 1900, with the economy in full rebound, he formed a new partnership with James Corner, who had formerly worked with Warren Skillings. Together they designed several large warehouses that still stand in the Pioneer Square neighborhood. One of their biggest projects and one of Boone's last was the stone Seattle High School (later known as Broadway High School) in 1902 and 1903. After 1905 Boone reduced his practice activities and by 1910 had retired altogether. He died in Seattle in October 1921 at the age of 91.[20]

• Ochsner, Jeffrey Karl; Andersen, Dennis Alan (2003). Distant Corner: Seattle Architects and the Legacy of H.H. Richardson. Seattle: University of Washington Press. ISBN 978-0-295-98238-0.
• Ochsner, Jeffrey Karl (1998). Shaping Seattle Architecture: A Historical Guide to the Architects [Corrected]. Seattle: University of Washington Press. ISBN 978-0-295-97366-1.
• MacIntosh, Heather M. (October 21, 1998). "Boone, William E. (1830–1921)". Historylink.com. Retrieved January 20, 2010.