Site Report 3
The College Inn and Comodore Appartments. Photograph taken 1928. University District, Seattle.
Block 35 Audio History
Looking north on University Way Avenue
The College Inn has been on this block since 1909. It was built for the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, first managed by Emily Cridland. Charles Cowen has the College Inn built, the name Cowen for which Cowen park a mile north of the block, is named for. He was an interesting man who grew up in South Africa, was sent to New York to get equipment for the diamond mines and never returned. He broke ties with his family, changed his name from ‘cohen’ to ‘cowen’ and settled in New York, then Florida and finally in Seattle. This Tudor-style building was designed by the architectural firm of Graham & Myers. In 1916, Ye College Inn became the College hotel. It was also apartments for a time. In the seventies, it returned to an Inn. A fun fact is that the serving of alcoholic beverages within two miles of the University of Washington was illegal until 1969. The building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
This block has remained relatively unchanging compared to other University district blocks. It is interesting that the Commodore Duchess Apartments are part of the UW but the other building on the block is not. When the University district was the “Brooklyn neighborhood,” before 1892, there were the streets had different names but they did not appear to move. Block 34 would appear to be between “Columbus” and “Fremont” avenues. These were renamed to University Avenue and 15th Avenue.