Celebrating the Alaska Trade Building

As you may have heard, we're celebrating our 10 year anniversary this year. Coincidentally, our office building is also celebrating an anniversary — its 110th!

If you step into our office, you’ll notice that we’re not in one of those shiny new downtown Seattle buildings. With our brick walls, standard fluorescent lighting, no blinds installed, and height of a 4-floor building, we are operated from the Alaska Trade Building.

Since the Alaska Trade building was built in 1909, it is celebrating its 110th anniversary this year. Located near the Pike Place Market, this building was one of the first reinforced steel, concrete and brick buildings in the area. As a result, it was advertised as being completely fireproof (we can’t verify this, but we’re not planning to test it any time soon!). The pictures you see below are from 1971, when the Alaska Trade Building was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

In addition, this building has housed similarly mission-minded businesses like ours. The Alaska Trade building was home to the Seattle Union Record in 1921, the country's only Union-owned daily newspaper. Founded in 1899, the paper ran for almost 30 years until its closure in 1928.

We feel lucky to be able to conduct our business in our historic building, and we look forward to celebrating more anniversaries here. For more information about the historic buildings in your area, please visit this map provided by the National Register.