From its construction shortly after the fire of 1889, the three-story Cadillac Hotel provided inexpensive lodgings for the people who came to Seattle to build and labor in the timber, fishing and shipbuilding industries. It also housed gold prospectors heading off to the Klondike, in the Yukon region of Canada, in the hope of making their fortune in 1897. Since 2006, the building has housed The Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park, recounting the exploits of a vital chapter in the city's history.
Another construction that rose after the fire was the Pioneer Building. Completed in 1892 close to the site of Henry Yesler's earlier timber mill, the building became one of the most prestigious commercial addresses in the city and had the offices of 48 mining companies during the gold rush. During the 20th century, however, businesses moved to other parts of Seattle, producing a decline in fortune for the Pioneer Building until a regeneration of the area began in the 1970s.
With its Tudor Revival exterior and elegant interiors, the Stimson-Green House in the affluent First Hill district illustrates the life of Seattle's business leaders at the end of the 19th century. Charles Stimson, who commissioned the building in 1899, had made his wealth from timber, real estate and finance. In 1914, Stimson sold the house to Joshua Green, whose wealth came first from a steamship company and later from insurance, transportation and banking. A noted sportsman and philanthropist, Green's prominence was such that he was named Seattle's man of the century in 1968.
William Boeing bought the Red Barn in 1910 for the construction of his yacht. But with the founding of his now-famous airplane manufacturing company, he used the building for his early aviation projects, including training planes for the Navy during World War I. It was also in the Red Barn, officially known as Boeing Airplane Company Building No. 105, that engineers designed the B-17 and B-29 bombers of the Second World War.
