The Washington Athletic Club, founded in 1930, is a private social and athletic club located in downtown Seattle. The 21-story WAC clubhouse opened in December 1930, and was designed in the Art Deco style by Seattle architect Sherwood D. Ford. The five-story WAC includes a 25-yard pool, full-size basketball court, running track, handball and racquetball courts, and pilates and yoga studios. The top ten floors house the Inn at the WAC, a 109-room boutique hotel. The club also offers a full-service day spa and a wellness center with nutrition, physical therapy, and naturopathic services. The building is also home to three restaurants, a private ballroom, social areas, and numerous meeting spaces. The idea of the Century 21 Exposition was first conceived by club members within the building in January 1955. In 2009, the Washington Athletic Club became a City of Seattle Landmark, and in 2018 its 6th Street building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
History
Club's early formation and plans In mid 1927, Seattle newcomer and realtor Noel B. Clarke put together a committee of Seattle attorneys, capitalists and bankers to raise money to form a new athletic club to serve the city's skyrocketing population. They began soliciting $100 founders' memberships to hire an architect and construct a clubhouse and by early 1928 over 1,000 had been collected. Funds were stored in a trust that couldn't be accessed until 2,000 memberships were sold. In February 1928, Clarke announced a 120 x 96' site had been chosen at the corner of 6th and University Streets. The committee hired the Seattle architectural firm of Baker, Vogel & Roush to design a building. Their plans were of an elegant twelve-story structure with Gothic Revival influences. The building would cost around $1 million and construction was to begin in June 1928. By March 1928, only 1,200 of the needed 2,000 members had signed up for the new club, causing a delay in the plans. More troubles arose in May 1928 when Clarke, the club's biggest single promoter, quit the board because of difficulties dealing with the Seattle Real Estate Board. After the passing of the original construction deadline, a new board of 26 of Seattle's most prominent businessmen came together to continue Clarke's work. The new committee chose to scrap the club's original design, now becoming dated, and hired architect Sherwood D. Ford to design something different at a new site chosen at the southwest corner of 6th Avenue and Union Street, owned by W.D. Comer, then president of the club and a holder of major financial interest. Ford's first proposal was for an elaborate 12-story building in the Mission Revival Style, unique to the region and similar in style to Seattle's Fox Theatre that Ford would later design. A large enclosed swimming pool would be located on the roof and, according to a rendering published in the August 23, 1928 issue of the Seattle Times, would have closely resembled the grand hall of Seattle's Union Station. With the club finally reaching its membership quota, their impounded funds were made available for use and an October 1928 date was proposed for construction to begin. In late September 1928, plans had changed again and club officials brought in Kenneth McCleod, manager of the Olympic Club in San Francisco, to consult with architect Ford to re-design the building in a way that would make optimal use of the lot. After an inspection of the site, Ford & McLeod left for an extended trip across the country to inspect and tour other metropolitan athletic clubs and gather ideas for the new design.
New plans and construction
Sherwood Ford's findings resulted in a new set of plans for a structure priced at $2.3 million. The new design was of an imposing 21-story art deco skyscraper with a central tower. It would be constructed of reinforced concrete and steel while the exterior consisted of brick and decorative terracotta tile and would be completely fireproof. Ford announced in a board meeting that the clubhouse "will be the very last word in structures of this kind and will rank among the best found anywhere." Additional financing was secured and Comer announced that construction would finally begin for sure by the end of 1929. The site at Sixth and Union, previously leased by the club from A.M. Goldstein and Dorn & Derneden, was officially purchased on October 30 and razing of the buildings on the site began 30 days later. While the Stock Market Crashed in October 1929, Seattle wouldn't immediately feel the effects and construction went ahead. The groundbreaking ceremony was held on Monday, December 16, 1929 at noon when a steam shovel driven by Reginald H. Parsons, chairman of the board of governors for the club, overturned the first load of dirt. City officials as well as club members and presidents of neighboring clubs were in attendance. The event was followed by a luncheon for board members at the Olympic Hotel. Construction commenced immediately with the steel structure of the building. The Wallace Bridge Company, who also constructed the structures of the Harborview Medical Center in Seattle and the St. Johns Bridge in Portland, Oregon, manufactured and assembled the building's steel frame. Over 1,200 tons of steel was used in construction with the beams over the main ballroom weighing 18 tons each. The steel frame was then encased in concrete. Tragedy struck on April 26, 1930 when Albert J. Triggs, superintendent for the Sound Construction Company was crushed to death when a section of the concrete structure collapsed on top of him. The steel frame was mostly completed by July and the brick sheathing followed soon after. By late December 1930 the building would be complete at a total cost of $2.5 million.
Grand opening and design
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