The Hull Building was built in 1889 by Alonzo Hull, a Pennsylvania native and American Civil War veteran who had arrived in Seattle a year prior via Little Rock, Arkansas and quickly began buying property. He took an active role in the localRepublican Party and served on the Seattle City Council throughout the 1890s where he helped establish the city's water system and was vital in securing the Cedar River Water shed as Seattle's primary water source. In February 1889 Hull purchased the lot at the Northwest corner of 1st Avenue and Battery Street for $13,000 from Dr. E.C. Kilbourne, kitty corner to William Bell's grand hotel that formed the nucleus of the burgeoning North Seattle neighborhood AKA Belltown. At Kilbourne's urging, Hull commissioned architect Elmer Fisher to design a 3-story brick building to occupy the lot with construction beginning that Spring. Completed in January 1890, Hull's $30,000 building was one of the first substantial brick buildings completed in the neighborhood. Featuring a restrained Victorian motif with exposed corbelled brick, pressed tin trimmings and cast iron storefront columns, it was typical of Fisher's style just prior to the Great Seattle Fire. The building contained 3 store rooms facing First Avenue while the upper floors were used as working class apartments, home to the likes of cooks, stenographers, ship captains, and clerks and owners of the downstairs businesses. One of the building's earliest retail tenants was the Barnes & Co. Pharmacy; drug stores under various names would operate in the corner store for most of the early 20th century. The lack of commercial development in Belltown after the early 20th century helped preserve the building's character and eventually the upper floors fell vacant and have remained so to the present day. At some point the building's cornices were replaced with near replicas but otherwise the building has had minimal restoration work. The Hull building was purchased by the Eng Family in 1958, who operated A-1 Laundry out the building's first floor and basement for 58 years, closing in 2016 and putting the building upfor sale. It was purchased by Hull Building LLC.
