Long may she wave (Image: CHS)

A longtime Capitol Hill business has closed possibly due to the costs of impending city regulations mandating that old buildings become earthquake ready. Callahan’s Auto, which has operated from its 1319 E. Madison location since 1948, moved to Monroe in Snohomish County in December. 

CHS has made repeated unsuccessful attempts to contact owner Kevin Callahan. One employee reached by phone confirmed that the move had to do with the cost of updating the building with seismic supports.

The neighboring buildings housing Chop Suey and the Madison Pub are separate structures.

While Callahan’s has for decades avoided retrofitting their building, new development regulations rolling out this year would require all “unreinforced masonry structures” to make the expensive upgrades. DPD’s 2012 URM Policy Committee released the mandate recommendations earlier this month.

The Talbot building, which housed Callahan’s, is one of the neighborhood’s several “pre-earthquake readiness” structures not be retrofitted with seismic supports. City requirements for seismic upgrades currently only kick-in when the building or its use undergo a major change. The new regulations, expected this year, would mandate all buildings have seismic supports. 

The Talbot building ranks as one of Capitol Hill’s highest seismic risk structures, according to a 2007 FEMA survey of unreinforced masonry structures in the area. The two-story building — constructed in 1920, according to King County records — still has its original solid wood supports and beams, each measuring about one-foot in diameter. Callahan previously told CHS that the building has remained structurally unchanged ever since.

According to King County records, Frances Kirsch-Erdman owns the deed for the property. She could not be reached for comment.

CHS wrote about the building’s development potential here last spring based on the FEMA survey ranking and the highest-risk properties slowly being ticked off the list as part of planned developments.

CHS also reported last year on the concentrations of URM structures on Capitol Hill and created this map to show the extent of their presence:

Here’s the map of the city’s survey findings — you’ll note the large pocket of unreinforced masonry structures in Capitol Hill’s core as well as remaining concentrations in downtown, Pioneer Square and smaller pockets elsewhere in the city. You can zoom in and click on specific addresses to learn more. Note that the dataset is heavily caveated by DPD — there may be errors and we have found several funky address issues. If you find anything weird, let CHS know and we’ll see what we can do to further scrub the data.

The Capitol Hill development community is already on the case. Later this month, the Pike Pine Urban Neighborhood Council, the Capitol Hill Chamber of Commerce and developer Gerding Edlen have planned a workshop on Seattle’s coming URM policy:

The meeting will be held at the Melrose Studios in the basement of the Melrose Market. No worries, by the way — the Market underwent a full seismic upgrade.

You can register for the event here.

In the back of Brocklind’s bridal and costume shop, Jim DeAmbrosio sits in the same office he’s been at for 25 years on Capitol Hill. Sprawled out before him are snippets of the shop’s storied past: yellowed news clippings, black-and-white photos, and and 50-year-old business invoices. One Seattle Times profile edges out of the pile. It was penned by revered Time’s humor columnist Byron Fish. In it, Fish notes that Brocklind’s is Seattle’s oldest costume shop. He typed the line in 1952.

(Images: Alex Garland for CHS)

That faded Times clip packs a mountain of Seattle history into a small corner of paper. After 106-years, Brocklind’s has done the same in their small corner of the city. Last month the Seattle costume, bridal, and tuxedo institution wrapped a deal to close for good.

“We’re working five to six days a week and we thought we might want to enjoy life a little more,” DeAmbrosio said. “We’ve been thinking for a couple of years now that if there was a good opportunity, we would take it.”

That opportunity came with an offer from Hunter’s Capital – the Capitol Hill-based, preservation-minded developers behind other auto-row projects and the Broadway Building. DeAmbrosio, who has owned the building erected in 1925 since 1986, said it was important to him that the 500 E. Pike St. structure retain its old-Seattle charm.

Now that the deal is done, Jim and his wife Diane have opened for one last sale, an everything-must-go push through the end of February. Highlight items up for sale include 1920s beaded bodices, vintage military jackets, turn-of-the-century wood steamer trunks, and vintage leather chaps. The warehouse-like store is packed with thousands of suits, dresses, and costumes.

Like DeAmbrosio, his two daughters grew up in the shop — but they never took a strong interest in owning it. He said he briefly considered trying to find someone outside the family to run the shop, but that didn’t feel right after it lasted so long as a family business.

Don’t bother trying to look up the original Brocklind family. They don’t exist. According to DeAmbrosio, “Brocklind” was a name born of the shop’s two original owners: Mrs. Brockman and Mrs. Lindeman. The two opened their downtown shop in 1906 – that’s one year before the opening of Pike Place Market.

DeAmbrosio said costumes, not formal wear, were the original focus.

Back before Seattle had its own theater company, DeAmbrosio said traveling plays and vaudeville shows would rely on shops like Brocklind’s to supply extra costuming. When the upscale Seattle department store Frederick & Nelson hosted its annual Santa, Brocklind’s provided the suit. Beards and wigs were once a big part of the business.

Fresh out of First Hill’s O’Dea High School, Jim’s father, Ray, joined the store as a clerk in 1928. Ten years later Ray bought the business, and it has remained in the family ever since. Jim followed his older brother, Jerry, into the family business after graduating from Seattle University in 1973.

Beginning in the 1950s Seafair was, for many years, Seattle’s showcase attraction, and Brocklind’s ensured participants were dressed to impress. Miss Seafair, King Neptune, and the Royal Court all got decked out in Brocklind’s garb. For a long time, DeAmbrosio said the Seafair clowns and pirates came to the store to get their costumes and makeup done. 

The royal SeaFair court in Brocklind’s splendor (Image: Courtesy Brocklind’s with permission)

In the late 80s, Brocklind’s was forced to move from its 9th and Olive location to make way for the construction of the Downtown Transit Tunnel. It was a gamble moving up the Hill. DeAmbrosio recalled a lot of handwringing at the time, wondering how the overlooked neighborhood would develop.

“I used to think of Capitol Hill as just a throughway to downtown,” DeAmbrosio said. “Now it’s a destination.”

The move was a big deal when visibility had nothing to do with SEO. DeAmbrosio said he remembers the first couple years on Capitol Hill while the tunnel was under construction, he would get phone calls from customers at the pay phone next to the old location. “They would say ‘where are you?’ I could hear the jackhammers in the background.”

In the 1990s, Brocklind’s reached its peak with five locations and around 40 employees. The U-District branch, at 43rd and The Ave., was the largest satellite. The store opened in 1948, and according to Brocklind’s lore, it was northernmost costume shop west of the Mississippi. 

While Brocklind’s has done a good job sweeping up local competition over the years, cheaply foreign-made products sold online and in international chain stores have taken their toll on the business. At one time the shop employed six full time seamstresses who would create costumes from scratch, taking orders from high school drama departments, traveling plays, and mascots for local companies (rumor has it Brocklind’s did the the first-ever Rainer Beer suit).

“Being a seamstress, it’s hard because people don’t realize the quality of the handmade costumes over the packaged costumes – they’re two completely different things,” said Diane, who has run the store’s bridal shop for 20 years.

DeAmbrosio insists costumes and formalwear are two sides of the same double-breasted suit. “People often ask ‘isn’t it strange to sell costumes and tuxedos’? Absolutely not. It’s all dressing up. A tuxedo is just another costume.” 

And as fashion styles change and re-emerge, so does the line dividing formal wear and costume. DeAmbrosio said having both in stock makes a lot of sense.

“We never really get rid of anything, we just move (formal wear) over to the costume department. Now it’s retro.”

Over the past half-century, DeAmbrosio has had a front row seat to the evolution in men’s formalwear. Starting when skinny and sleek broke into the scene in the 1950s. Then the pale blues and pinks of the 1960s; oversized lapels, polyester, and loud colors in the 1970s; the conservatism of the early 1980s and the re-emergence of colored jackets later in the decade (aka the “Miami Vice look”). Neckties entered formal wear in the 1990s, DeAmbrosio said, and things have remained fairly stable since. “The fashion meter doesn’t swing so wide anymore.”

During his lifetime of dressing up Seattle, DeAmbrosio said what kept it exciting was helping people transform into something else, even for just a night. “When people walk into our store, they want to be something different. They want to be something they’re not aren’t every other day of their lives. There’s something special about that.”

DeAmbrosio’s biggest pleasure is now hearing stories from past costumers (leave ’em if you got ’em, embarrassing pics encouraged). “That’s what I’m going to miss, hearing about how Brocklind’s had some little part in people’s lives,” he said.

The day after he officially closes the store, DeAmbrosio said he’ll take a deep breath and think about the next, hopefully less hectic, phase of his life. “It’s been a good ride, it’s been a good ride.”

Northwest Liquor and Wine, the former state-owned liquor store at 12th and Pine, is up for sale. Owner Hardial Gill of Los Angeles, said he’s selling the business because he no longer has anyone to manage the store – his Seattle business partner is moving back to California.

Don’t panic though, the store will stay open throughout the sale. 

“Me and my partners live in California, we don’t have anyone to be here in Washington. None of my partners want to be in Washington,” Gill said. “In the liquor business you need someone there. It’s a lot more cash. You need a good manager.” Gill is also the owner of Bergmann Luggage, as well as several convenience stores in California.

Gill purchased the Capitol Hill shop in April, along with 10 other stores across the state, when the Washington State Liquor Control Board auctioned off all 167 of its liquor retail stores and licenses. Gill paid $500,100 for the 12th and Pine store, including inventory.

 He and his business partners are now exiting the liquor retail business in Washington. Business was going well, he said, but it was difficult to manage several stores among six business partners.

Gill put the Capitol Hill store up for sale two weeks ago for $585,000, inventory not included. Re-selling the store at a profit would be a departure from the Broadway liquor store and others, many of which re-sold at a loss.

Gill said he’s been talking to interested buyers, but there are no offers on the table.

According to Gill, the store did $220,000 in sales last month. He said the store did $70,000 in sales in beer and wine alone. Gill started offering beer, wine, and cigarettes soon after he took over.

“This store could do $2.5-$3 million in sales (per year),” he said. “It’s a great store, it’s a great location,”

The liquor store is located inside the Richmark Label building. William Donner, president of the label printing business and owner of the building, did not return calls for comment.

And nothing new to report on the former Broadway liquor store – the space at Republican and Broadway is still empty. Real estate firm Kidder Matthews is leasing the property for $136,000 a year.