William E. Boone

Boone was one of Seattle's most prominent pre-fire architects whose career lasted into the early 20th century outlasting many of his peers.

[3] 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 from 1853 to 1856. he was lured further west by the Cariboo Gold Rush in British Columbia, where he reportedly struck it rich only to promptly lose it all from bad business decisions.

[4] In 1859 he relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area, where he worked as a journeyman architect-builder-contractor, securing over $1 million in projects during his brief residency.

He first arrived in the Puget Sound region in 1870 where he appears in the 1870 United States census residing in Olympia, Washington.

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.

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.

[12] The following year, Boone oversaw the construction of one of Seattle's first modern office buildings, the Boston Block at Second and Columbia.

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.

[21] 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.

[22] Over the next several years, he only took on several small projects, collaborating with Edwin Houghton and other architects on residential and industrial improvements, and in 1896 supervised the completion of the Mutual Life Building.

[23] In 1899, with the economy in full rebound after the Yukon Gold Rush, he formed a new partnership with James Corner, who had formerly worked with Warren Skillings.