Rector Hotel
The Rector Hotel, later known as the St. Charles Hotel and during the 1930s the Governor Hotel, is a historic hotel building located at the Southwest corner of Third Avenue and Cherry Street in downtown Seattle, Washington. It was constructed in the latter half of 1911 by the estate of pioneer lumber baron Amos Brown. Designed by prominent Seattle architect John Graham, Sr., the original plans were for a twelve-story building that would be built in two phases but the top 6 floors were never added. Originally a hotel serving the tourist trade, by the 1970s it was operating as a Single resident occupancy hotel. In 1986 it was renovated into low-income housing by the Plymouth Housing Group. In 2002 it was added to the National Register of Historic Places. It is located north of historic Pioneer Square, "in the shadow of" the Smith Tower, and adjacent to the former Grand Opera House and the 1910-built Chicago School-style Lyon Building, also designed by John Graham. History Amos Brown Amos Brown, a native of New Hampshire, was lured to the Northwest in the 1850s, like many, by the promise of riches during the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush but by the time he arrived in Victoria, B.C. the rush was all but over. Undaunted, he decided to throw his lot in with the growing local lumber industry, landing at Port Gamble, Washington in 1859 where he went to work running logging camps for Cyrus Walker. He soon came into his own, opening logging camps and mills throughout Puget Sound and by the 1870s had become one of the most powerful lumber men in the region. The same year he had arrived in Port Gamble, he purchased the first of many pieces of Seattle real estate sight unseen, that by the time of his death would be some of the most valuable property in the city. After his marriage to Annie Peoples, one of the famous Mercer Girls, in 1867, Brown would make Seattle his permanent home, joining the city council and building a stately residence on his property at First Avenue and Spring Streets in the early 1870s. Brown retired from logging in 1882 to focus on improving his real estate holdings. He passed away from complications from stomach cancer in 1899 with an estate valued at nearly $400,000. The Rector Hotel Of Brown's real estate holdings, the 2 lots at the southwest corner of Cherry Street and Third Avenue were identified as the most valuable. Brown had purchased the two lots from Henry Yesler in 1890 in partnership with Jacob Furth and J.D. Lowman, of Lowman and Hanford but would later buy out their interests. 1 year prior to Brown's death, the Western 2/3rds of the property facing Cherry Street had been leased to theater operator John Cort who opened a beer hall and one year after Brown's death built the Grand Opera House on the site. The remaining 35' X 120' sliver of property facing Third Avenue, made narrower after