Twenty years later, on September 26, 1881, it held a memorial service for President James Garfield, who had died five days earlier from injuries sustained when he was shot in July.

It stood five stories high and for much of its existence bore the inscription "1890" above the fifth-story window, signifying the year it was completed.

Designed in the Victorian architectural tradition and clad in white cement, it stood in stark contrast to its dark brick and stone neighbors.

Damaged by the 1949 Olympia earthquake and abandoned by 1961, the Seattle Hotel was torn down and replaced with a parking garage, derisively called the "Sinking Ship" as part of the initial stages of an urban-renewal plan that would level all the old buildings in the district.

The old hotel's demise kicked off a preservation movement spearheaded by the likes of Alan Black, Victor Steinbrueck and historian/author Bill Speidel which led to a revival of the Pioneer Square district.