The A.E. Larson Building is a prominent

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

office building in

Yakima, Washington Yakima ( or ) is a city in and the county seat of Yakima County, Washington, and the state's 11th-largest city by population. As of the 2020 census, the city had a total population of 96,968 and a metropolitan population of 256,728. The uninc ...

, built in 1931. When it was built the eleven-story brick structure was by far the tallest building in Yakima, an otherwise low-lying town, and remains the tallest building in Yakima to this day. It was built by entrepreneur Adelbert E. Larson and designed by local architect John W. Maloney.

Description

The A.E. Larson Building is tall to the top of its flagpole, and is by in plan. It is eleven stories tall, with retail shops on the ground floor, together with the main lobby. The building is clad in salmon-colored brick and terra cotta. The ground level is faced with stone with Art Deco bronze accents. The building rises straight from this base to the tenth floor, where it steps back, with deeper setbacks on the eleventh floor. The lobby is richly detailed in stone and bronze, with elaborate bronze surrounds at the three elevator entrances. The building's original windows are a unique vertically-hinged steel casement that allows cleaning from inside.

History

Adelbert E. Larson was born in Minnesota, arriving in Washington in 1884, where he worked in lumber camps. He came to Yakima in 1891 to buy a lumberyard. A successful businessman, he bought real estate, involved himself in politics and promoted local business. Despite the Great Depression, Larson committed $600,000 of his own funds to build the A.E. Larson Building in 1931, benefiting from reduced construction costs. He hired John W. Maloney, a Yakima architect, to design his building, and the Hans Pederson Construction Company to build it. The new tower replaced a bank building on the site. Larson died in 1934, and Maloney moved to Seattle in 1946. The A.E. Larson Building was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

on September 11, 1984. Despite Larson's certainty the economic prospects of Yakima were bright and his goal of the building ushering in a new, cosmopolitan age for the city, unlike the comparably grand art deco Northern Life Tower in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

which has since been surrounded by larger skyscrapers, slower economic growth in

Yakima County Yakima County is a county in the U.S. state of Washington. As of the 2020 census, its population was 256,728. The county seat and largest city is Yakima. The county was formed out of Ferguson County in January 1865 and is named for the Yakam ...

means the Larson Building continues to stand mostly alone in Yakima's skyline.

References

Office buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Washington (state) Art Deco architecture in Washington (state) Office buildings completed in 1931 Buildings and structures in Yakima, Washington John W. Maloney buildings National Register of Historic Places in Yakima County, Washington {{Washington-NRHP-stub