Federal Building (Justice-INS) 815 Airport Way, Seattle, WA 98134 Architect: Wetmore, James A. Constructed: 1930 - 1931 Nat'l Register ID #: 79002542 GSA Building #: WA0037ZZ

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Statement of Significance

The Federal Building (Justice-INS), known also as the INS Building, is significant both architecturally and culturally. Built for the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), the low, brick-faced building is a well-preserved example of the classically-derived Mediterranean Revival Style. The exterior has remained virtually unchanged since its construction. It was designed in 1929 under the supervision of Judge James A. Wetmore, then Acting Supervising Architect of the U.S. Treasury Department, and Louis A. Simon, Superintendent of the Architectural Section of the Supervising Architect's Office. During their tenures at the Treasury Department from 1905 to 1940, it was Wetmore and Simon who encouraged the use of understated, restrained, classical revival styles for federal buildings across the country. In this nation-wide context, the INS Building is significant as a well-proportioned, simply detailed example of the Mediterranean Revival Style. The building was built on property originally purchased for the construction a new post office. The Department of Labor, that once administered the immigration processes in this country, was authorized $100,000 to purchase the site for use as an Immigration Station when it was decided not to build a post office there. Construction of the new building began in 1930. The General Contractor was Elvind Anderson of Tacoma, Washington; the construction bid was $517,880. When completed in 1931, the building housed both U.S. Immigration Offices and Detention Facilities on the first three floors, and a U.S. Assay Facility on the fourth floor. These two seemingly unrelated agencies have individual histories that contribute to significance of the building.


IMMIGRATION STATION

As the volume of immigrants to the United States increased at the turn of the 20th Century, the laws governing potential immigrants became more stringent. As a consequence, the number of aliens detained for lack of sufficient documentation increased. For security reasons, aliens who were being investigated were detained in the same facility where their applications were being processed. As a result, large immigration stations were constructed to handle the high volumes of aliens applying for residency in the United States. Among the largest stations were those in New York (Ellis Island), constructed between 1892-1897; Honolulu, constructed in 1905; and San Francisco (Angel Island), constructed between 1906-1909.

In 1916, approximately 3,500 of the 900,000 immigrants who passed through Seattle's immigration station were investigated and over 500 actually deported. It was reported that as many as 750 were detained at one time. By 1929, the station originally located near Smith Cove had become inadequate for processing and detention. The new Federal Building/INS Building was constructed following the period of greatest immigration into the United States. The facility was modern and spacious, and designed to relieve the pressures on the existing station. It served primarily as a detention center for Chinese immigrants who, due to the Chinese Exclusion Act, were detained and investigated intensely. The facility provided for the segregation of Chinese and white, with dormitory spaces for women, men and boys, secure recreation areas and a kitchen equipped primarily for Chinese cooking. When Chinese immigration diminished rapidly during World War II, the Seattle INS Facility was used primarily to detain Europeans facing deportation. A newspaper from January 1941 noted that almost every European nation was represented among the 130 detainees. Following the war, the facility served primarily to manage immigration in Washington State and the Pacific Northwest Region. Between 1950 and 1987, many of the unused detention areas in the building were converted to office and support spaces for the Immigration Service. In 1987, a major remodeling was undertaken to include both minimum and high security detention areas. At the time of this report, there were approximately 300 detainees -- stays average two to six months; the longest is said to be twenty-eight months at the present time.


ASSAY OFFICE

The U.S. Assay Office in Seattle was first authorized in 1898. It was opened primarily due to the Klondike Gold Rush, to analyze the gold and silver content of the bullion brought through Seattle by miners journeying to and from Alaska and Canada. This created the opportunity for the U.S. Government to determine a fair price for the metal and purchase it from them. In the period from 1898 to 1918, over $174 million in Alaskan gold bullion was purchased by the U.S. Government through the Seattle Assay Office. At the time of construction of the new INS Building, the existing assay facility had become inadequate. It was decided to relocate the facility to the fourth floor of the new federal building. The necessary chimneys, outlets, and equipment for weighing, analyzing and processing the metal and ore were subsequently incorporated into the building. Although unrelated in function, it is thought that the 24-hour guards on duty for the INS Detention Facilities in the building prevented robbery attempts at the assay facility when it was in operation. When the office eventually closed in 1955, it was the last of its kind in the U.S. Treasury Department; over $658 million worth of gold had been processed there.




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