The City of Auburn is in the opening stages of discussions with King County about the county’s possible surplusing of the Seattle-King County Public Health Center at 20 Auburn Ave. NE.
City officials would like to acquire the 62-year-old building, which began life as the U.S. Post Office.
The big question: Should the city get the building, what then?
“We would look at taking it because it’s one of the very few historical things we’ve got,” said Auburn Mayor Pete Lewis. “But what in the heck would we do with it? I’ve been wracking my head about this. Originally, I thought of some type of museum. But that center structure isn’t moving.”
The mayor’s reference is to the massive, central support structure that extends from the basement up through the second floor.
“It is 4,000 square feet on each floor with a large front and a giant group of pillars outside, a lot of steel and concrete in the center and offices with columns in about every one down the sides,” Lewis said. “So what do you do? You can’t open it up. I’ve got to bring some of the my council members and some of our arts folks there to get some ideas.”
The 8,000-square foot, two-story building was constructed as a Works Project Administration (WPA) project in 1937 during the Great Depression. Designed in the “Starved Classical” style as a simple, traditional public building, its interior is graced with Alaskan marble wainscoting, mahogany trim and terrazzo floors. It also features a long set of skylights, all locked together on a wheel with a chain that can be operated to provide circulation.
The building served as the U.S. Post Office until 1963 when the federal government built the present post office on Third Street.
The building is currently valued at $825,000.
Calls to King County were not returned for this article.
But according to the King County Web site, the building project created needed employment for people in the building trades who were out of work during the Great Depression and provided a new, central location for Auburn’s citizens to get their mail.
“Historically, it has been used as a social service site, so the community has come to depend on that as a place where services and resources can be found,” said Michael Hursh, Human Resources Manager for the City of Auburn. “The city has a similar interest in maintaining the historical preservation side of the building while continuing to provide social and human services for our residents. Things like art, which don’t exactly provide economic development but touch the way our community lives, could certainly play a part in what happens to that building.”
“I am very proud that the mayor and City Council see value in that building,” said Patricia Cosgrove, director of the White River Valley Museum. “It’s really important to take these opportunities seriously and try to obtain funding if we can. Downtown has a few openings for us like the city’s interest in the old library building and the theater, and the old post office is one of them.”
