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CHS Retro Photo: A Farewell To Undre Arms…

The Bovingdon of 1937 meets 11th & Union of 2011

With contents recently sold off and residents moved out, it’s only a matter of time before the infamous Undre Arms meets the wrecking ball. Alas, time has not been kind to The Arms; its rather dilapidated state betrays barely a hint of its former grandeur.

Originally built as the Bovingdon in 1904 by a John Sidney Bovingdon, who was born in Towanada, Pennsylvania, graduated law school at Buffalo NY, and bounced between Philadelphia, Cornell (to study agriculture), California, back to Pennsylvania and ended up in Seattle as a teacher where he dabbled briefly in real estate with this building before returning to teaching. 

The Bovingdon of 1952 meets Undre Arms of 2011

 “The Bovingdon Flats”, ran the Seattle Times For Rent advert in 1906, “with every modern convenience; steam heat, janitor service. Madison and Eleventh.”

The building as it looked in 1937

The building as it looked in 1952

The architect hired by Bovingdon for this building was a William P White, who is often described as being “well-known Seattle Architect”, yet little is known about his birth, death, or education. But we do know that he was quite prolific in Seattle, Vancouver and elsewhere in the Puget Sound region, credited with design of many apartment buildings, including the large block that sits opposite Madison from Madison Market, at Madison and 16th, the Kinnear building in Queen Anne, and the Freedman Building in the International District.

At some point, possibly in the early 50’s, the Bovingdon was given a makeover (makeundre?), with new siding applied, and the elegant porches and balconies removed in favor of a simpler look. (Many other elegant structures around the hill and elsewhere in Seattle suffered a similar fate around this time.)

The moniker “Undre Arms” was in place by at least 1976, when a Seattle Times column quoted then-owner Paul McKillop as saying that the spelling UndRE “gives it a little bit of class – which is the extent of the building’s class.” Later on, in the .COM era, residents added a .COM to the name and set up a web site to advise readers that they did not particularly care for the opinions of the landlord in unit 1, owner of the infamous sign.

Historic photos courtesy King County Assessor Property Record Card Collection (1937, 1952), Washington State Archives, Puget Sound Branch.

Brendan McKeon is a volunteer Pike/Pine tour guide for the Seattle Architecture Foundation and an occasional repeat photographer, and hopes to match up several other buildings on the hill with their historic photos over the Summer.

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W. P. F.
11 years ago

Subject was my grandfather. I am now researching his history. It would be a great help if I knew his middle name.

If anyone out there has any info, would be greatly appreciated.

BrendanMcK
BrendanMcK
11 years ago

Hi – Unfortunately there’s not a lot of information about him online. The best reference I found is this overview: http://www.dahp.wa.gov/learn-and-research/architect-biograph – no mention of his middle name. I found the King County 1019 census record, which does list his pace of birth as New York ~1864, but still list just listed as William P there ( http://www.digitalarchives.wa.gov/Record/View/0903C1EADEF355 ).

I don’t know that I can be of much help to you, but feel free to contact me at brendan_mckeon at hotmail.com – I’m also curious about any information you have.