From Theodore Roosevelt to Elvis Presley, from William Howard Taft to Babe Ruth, guests who stayed in the New Washington Hotel in downtown Seattle ranged from presidents to sports stars to music idols. This once-elegant 14-story building on the corner of Second Avenue and Stewart Street, built in 1908, was the city’s premier hotel for decades. It had 250 comfortable rooms, a dining room with terra cotta ceiling, and a stunning marble lobby with a fireplace that included a tiled image of Mount Rainier on top and two hard-carved totem poles on each side.
The illustrious guests from years past would be hard-pressed to recognize the place now. Transformed about 20 years ago and renamed The Josephinum, the building is home to an assortment of studio and one-bedroom apartments for low-income residents as well as 40 units for the recently homeless. Its new owner: Catholic Community Services.
