The brick warehouse built because the neighbors blocked a train terminus

The Northern Pacific Railway had a plan to build a massive train terminus on this reclaimed tideland. The locals hated the idea. They staged some serious opposition, forcing the railroad to pivot. The result was the Northwest Improvement Company hiring architects to replace a mess of ramshackle tin buildings with something permanent. They got their brick, but not their terminus.

Constructed between late 1904 and mid 1905, the National Building is a six-story brick fortress on Western Avenue. It was supposed to be part of a pair of warehouses, but only the National Building was originally planned to be built at full height. It features a dark red brick facade with piers expressed externally as pilasters capped with small Ionic capitals.

The National Grocery Company was one of the first companies to sign a lease before construction began. They eventually took over the whole thing, giving the building its name until 1930. After the grocery business folded, the building housed many small manufacturing and distributing firms, before becoming an office space in the late 1960s.

Today, the structure serves as a local landmark and houses the Seattle Weekly. You can still see the loading dock with large freight doors on the Post Avenue side, a reminder of the days when this block was a hub for the commission trade.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons