U.S. Immigrant Station & Assay Office, 815 Airport Way, Seattle, King County, WA

Significance: The U.S. Immigrant Station and Assay Office (Federal Building, Immigration and Naturalization Service), is significant both architecturally and culturally. Built for the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the low-scaled, brick-faced building is a well-preserved example of the classically-derived Mediterranean Revival Style. It was designed in 1929 under the supervision of the U.S. Treasury Department which, at the time, encouraged the use of the understated, restrained, classical revival style for federal buildings across the country. In this nationwide context, the building is significant as a well-proportioned, simply detailed example of that style. When completed in 1931, the building houses both U.S. Immigration Offices and Detention Facilities, which served primarily as a detention center for undocumented Chinese immigrants, and a U.S. Assay Facility, which was first opened primarily to analyze the gold and silver brought from Alaska and Canada during the Klondike Gold Rush. These two seemingly unrelated agencies have individual histories that contribute to the historic significance of the building.

Unprocessed Field note material exists for this structure: N346

Survey number: HABS WA-215

Building/structure dates: 1931 Initial Construction

National Register of Historic Places NRIS Number: 79002542

offices immigrants assaying detention facilities seattle immigrant immigrant station assay assay office airport way airport way washington state mediterranean revival architectural elements government facilities king county eivind anderson historic american buildings survey mary peck us general services administration us immigration and naturalization service us treasury department photo ultra high resolution high resolution us treasury library of congress national register of historic places

1931 - 1980

Library of Congress

http://www.loc.gov/

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