Seattle Press on Line - Losing Lillian

Losing Lillian

"We Love the Lillian" says a postcard designed to be sent to Vulcan/Legacy Properties' Paul Allen and Jim Mueller.

Jul 04, 2002 -- In what some see as a harbinger of changes to come, Seattle's Cascade neighborhood will probably soon lose what many believe is a fine old building.

The Lillian Apartments, a 100-year-old, 33-unit building with its columns and bay windows looking out onto John Street, is going to be demolished, according to Michael Nank, spokesperson for Paul Allen's Vulcan NW, which owns the building. "It's unsound and beyond its useful life," Nank asserted.

But a group of Cascade neighbors are crying foul. They say Vulcan removed vital plumbing fixtures and other essential systems from the building after the tenants moved out, rendering the building uninhabitable and thus making an end run around the normal project permitting process. A complaint filed by Vulcan with the Department of Design, Construction and Land Use (DCLU) bears out this claim, listing missing systems as one problem with the building. A DCLU inspection also revealed structural defects: a crumbling roof and cracks in the balconies. Supporters of the Lillian dismiss the structural problems as normal aging.

At a June 26 hearing, DCLU decided to postpone a decision on whether to order Vulcan to make repairs to the building or demolish it immediately. A public comment period is now open through July 12. For more information about the Lillian's fate, call Matthew Moeller at DCLU, 386-9741 or John Fox of Seattle Displacement Coalition, 632-0668.

Reader Comments

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Genevieve Griesau	Jul 29, 2002	Albany,NY	feng shui asthetician
Back in the spring of 2001, I spent a short but sweet few months living in the Lillian. At that time, numerous units were already vacant, due to a process that had begun long before Vulcan began giving notices to vacate, and offering remaining residents sizable sums of money to do so quietly. Considering the high number of empty apartments, the Lillian continued to be a vital community of creative individuals living in a very unique situation. I can't think of any other place in Seattle that was so centrally located, yet priced so that everyone from seniors to artists and in between could actually afford to live near the heart of this increasingly expensive town. While the units were not the nice, newer kind you'd expect the shoppers next door at REI to live in, they were, unlike Vulcan alleges, equipped with adequate plumbing and cooking units, including, in my unit, a clawfoot tub and functioning gas stove. I miss many aspects of living in the Lillian, and it's a shame Paul Allen and his ilk aren't wealthy enough yet that Vulcan needs to destroy what was a unique, affordable home to us and replace it with more cookie-cutter condos, just in case there weren't enough of those here.


Wayne	Mar 06, 2006	Boston, MA	Client Manager
I lived in Seattle for 14 playing music pretty seriously, and knew several people that lived in The Lillian. I was just reminiscing about it to a friend here in Boston (where I live now)and found this page. My best friend lived there for years in one of the studio units that had no bathroom (he used the communal one)and it was very inexpensive, which worked well as he traveled all over the world alot, so it was like a hotel to him, but other folks had made it a home in the nicer usnits with bathrooms and kitchens. The view was incredible and I always thought it wonderful that lower income folks could afford that, and that artists and musicians had a place to be and fit in. I also had a brief fling with a woman who lived there. I had even planned on writing an article on the building, I was going to interview various residents, but alas, corporate greed won out, as it often does, especially in Seattle, it seems. Many fine memories from there. Thanks for this page, a shame it was not saved! Wayne