Camlin Hotel

About this property

The Camlin Hotel is an historic hotel in Downtown Seattle, Washington. The hotel was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1999. The architect for the Camlin was Carl L. Linde of Portland, a one time brewery builder, who had built the edifice to resemble an Italian castle. The 94 apartments had all of the latest conveniences, such as "shower baths" and dinettes and kitchenettes. The penthouse comprised the entire 11th floor. On October 31, 1926, the Camlin Apartment Hotel had its official opening. The Seattle Times at the time stated, the exterior effect of the Camlin is such as to make it stand out from all parts of the city. Instinctively, the thought is born of the magnificent view of the Sound and Olympics which is to be had from the lofty windows in the rear of this edifice. Nothing has been spared in the way of expense in its construction. The Camlin stands as a monument to Seattle's development, a mark which equals anything to be found anywhere on the Pacific Coast. The building of the Camlin Hotel was sponsored by Adolph Linden and Edmund W. Campbell, the President and Vice-President/Secretary of the Puget Sound Savings & Loan. However, in May, 1926, the month of the hotel's opening, a bank employee had noticed some questionable withdrawals, and had brought them to the attention of the bank's board. The withdrawals included $866,000 to finish the Camlin Hotel. The State Supervisor of Savings and Loans, Mr. W.L. Nicely, after meeting with the board and looking at the evidence stated, This resulted in the meeting of the officers and directors with the supervisor October 2, when it was decided, with my advice and concurrence, that instead of closing the institution, the interests of the shareholder would be better served by securing an agreement with Linden and Campbell to make restitution as far as possible by turning over to the association all of their personal and other holdings, including the Camlin Apartment Hotel, under a trust agreement, and that, under the direction of the supervisor an endeavor would be made to restore the impairment of the capital of the association, the same officers and directors to continue in office, and the completion of the Camlin Apartment Hotel, which is under construction, to be carried out. It took a year for this trust to be finalized and put on record. It was valued at $1.75 million, and included everything that Campbell and Linden owned. The agreement was not made public at the time. Before the Puget Sound Savings and Loan went under in 1931, the Camlin had been sold to the Vance Lumber Company, which already owned Seattle's Vance Hotel.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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