King Street Station (Seattle)

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This article is about the railway station in Seattle. For the Metro station in Alexandria, Virginia, see King Street (Washington Metro).
View from southeast, city skyline in background
Seattle
Station statistics
Address 303 S Jackson St.
Seattle, Washington 98104
Lines Amtrak Services:
Cascades
Coast Starlight
Empire Builder

Sound Transit Services:

North Line
South Line
Other service Amtrak Thruway Motorcoach
Other information
Passengers (2006) 583,766 (Amtrak) 7.4%
Opened May 1906
Rebuilt ongoing
Code SEA
Owned by City of Seattle

King Street Station is a train station in Seattle, Washington. Located between S. King and S. Jackson Streets and 2nd and 4th Avenues S. in the Pioneer Square neighborhood of Seattle, the station was built from 1904 to 1906 by the Great Northern Railway and Northern Pacific Railway. Its 242 foot tower, modeled after Campanile di San Marco in Venice, Italy, made it the tallest building in Seattle at the time of its construction.

The station is served by Amtrak Cascades, Empire Builder, and Coast Starlight lines and by Sound Transit's Sounder commuter trains. In 2006, Amtrak ridership totaled 583,766 boardings. For the first 9 months of 2006, Sounder service boarded almost 1.2 million passengers at King Street Station.[1] It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.

Over the years, remodeling has concealed the station's grand interior. The ornate ceiling was covered by a lower one, the waiting room was walled off, marble was removed from support columns, a grand staircase linking S. Jackson Street with the west entrance was reduced to half its size, and an addition to the west side of the building was added which did not fit in with the building's architecture. At no time did this station ever have green tiles, however. It always had asphalt for roofing. Every photo taken of the station since it was built proves this.

Plans are underway to restore the entire building to its former prominence. Cosmetic renovations began in 2003.[2] In November 2006, the office of Seattle mayor Greg Nickels announced a preliminary agreement between the City of Seattle and BNSF Railway to the purchase the station for $1. The Seattle City Council formalized the agreement by passing legislation in December 2006.[3] The purchase by the city will free up 19 million dollars of state and federal funds that can be used for restoration of the station. The city has ear-marked a further 10 million dollars for the restoration as part of a recently passed local transportation levy. [4]

[edit] Gallery

View from the southeast with the Smith Tower under construction in the background, 1913

View from the west, 1913

View from southeast with old canopies, August 2002

View from the northeast with Qwest Field in the background

Interior view of renovated compass room.

[edit] Notes and references

  1. ^ Riley, Kate. "Crowning the King", Seattle Times, 2006-12-17. Retrieved on 2007-02-02.
  2. ^ Seattle, WA - Great American Stations. Amtrak. Retrieved on 2007-02-02.
  3. ^ Seattle City Ordinance, No. 122312. Office of City Clerk, City of Seattle (2006-12-11). Retrieved on 2007-02-02.
  4. ^ Young, Bob. "$1 deal struck for King Street Station", Seattle Times, 2006-11-21. Retrieved on 2007-02-02.

[edit] External links

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