Seattle’s 1st Starbucks, 1971–1976
Above/featured: Exhibition “Edible City: A Delicious Journey” at MOHAI – Seattle, 8 Jan 2017 (6D1).
What: 1st Starbucks, in the Rhode Island building at the corner of Virginia & Western.
Where: A restaurant now, but no historical plaque or sign.
Why: 1st location between 1971 to 1976, as historical exercise.
Many write about and refer to the “original Starbucks” location in downtown Seattle. If they’re referring to the present location in Pike Place, that Starbucks outlet while the world’s oldest is not the first or original location.
So, what happened to Starbucks’ very first shop from 1971 to 1976?
1st Starbucks at Virginia and Western
From 1971 to 1976, the first Starbucks was located at address 2000 Western Avenue within the Rhode Island building at the northeast corner of Virginia Street and Western Avenue. A 1937 photo from the city archives shows the building was once home to Hotel Conklin, Tsue and Company Produce, and the Market Tavern. By 1971, the produce market at the building’s corner was replaced with the new Starbucks coffee store, accompanied soon by the brown logo fixed high against the building and a sign outside on the pavement. After demolition of the Rhode Island building in late-1976 to early-1977, Starbucks moved about 90 metres (290 feet) southeast to its present location in the Soames-Dunn building at address 1912 Pike Place.
By comparing my recent digital photographs with digitized images from the Seattle Municipal Archives (SMA), I’ll show Starbucks’ very first location was attached to the Rhode Island building. Today (early-2020), the northeast corner of Virginia Street and Western Avenue is occupied by Tom Douglas’ Seatown Market Diner, across the street from Victor Steinbrueck Park.
Locations A through F indicate viewing perspectives of the area.
- Western/Virginia, SE corner (facing northwest)
- Western/Virginia, SW corner (facing northeast)
- Western Ave to Pike Place/Virginia (facing southeast)
- Virginia St to Western Ave (facing southwest)
- Pike Place to Western/Virginia (facing northwest)
- Soames-Dunn building (facing northeast)
A. Western/Virginia, SE corner (facing northwest)
Behind the stop sign at the centre of the image above is a red building with Seatown Market Diner at street level; a “neon crab” sign lights up the front-facing window. That was the former location of the Rhode Island building which was home to the city’s first Starbucks. At right is the covered shelter at the north end of Pike Place Market’s North Arcade area for market stalls.
B. Western/Virginia, SW corner (facing northeast)
C. Western Ave to Pike Place/Virginia (facing southeast)
SMA image no. 36406: the covered shelter at the north end of North Arcade appears at centre. The former Mobil gas- and service-station has been replaced by Victor Steinbrueck Park.
D. Virginia St to Western Ave (facing southwest)
SMA image no. 35187: the view faces west from the top of the former Armory Park Parking structure over Virginia Street and Western Avenue. The Mobil gas- and service-station at centre would be replaced by the green space Market Park in 1982, which was subsequently renamed Victor Steinbrueck Park in 1985.
E. Pike Place to Western/Virginia (facing northwest)
F. Soames-Dunn building (facing northeast)
Additions
1st street sign, 1971
An original Starbucks curb-side placard is on display at Seattle’s Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI) as part of their permanent collection. The accompanying caption reads:
In 1971, this simple hand-painted sign stood outside the first Starbucks at 2000 Western Avenue. Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl, and Gordon Bowker – two teachers and a writer – had named their little coffee store “Starbucks” after a character in the book “Moby Dick”. Their roasted coffee beans warmed Seattleites’ hearts, and the rest is history. Bowker said: “We came desperately close to calling it (the store) ‘Cargo House’, which would have been a terrible mistake.”
Some Notes
There’s an existing remnant of a covered shelter at the very end of the market’s north arcade where there might have been a former streetcar stop at the intersection of Pike Place, Western Avenue, and Virginia Street (coordinates: +47.610259, -122.343436). Seattle Municipal Street Railway maps from the early 1930s show there was double-track streetcar service running northwest to southeast along Western Avenue and a couple of routes onto Virginia Street: 1931 network, 1933 map from SDOT Photos, and another 1933 map via SPL/Lee Roberts.
As of posting, Seattle’s oldest continuously operating coffee house resides in the U-District next to the campus of the University of Washington. Alhough it’s not the very first coffee bar in the city, Cafe Allegro lays claim as Seattle’s “original espresso bar” since 1975, and its operation has been credited as the prototype for Starbucks stores.
23 May 2021: WordPress user “lagoetz” kindly informed me Seattle’s 1st espresso bar was called “Last Exit on Brooklyn,” operating from 1967 to 1993 at 3930 Brooklyn Avenue NE near the University of Washington’s main campus.
• Starbucks Melody, by Melody Overton.
• Evolution of Starbucks’ logo, by S. Raghav for Design Hill (2016).
• 10 things to know about Starbucks, by D. Roos for Mental Floss (2010).
I visited the ancestral lands of the Duwamish (Dxʷdəwʔabš) People. Images labelled “SMA” are courtesy of the Seattle Municipal Archives. I made all remaining photos with a Canon EOS6D mark1 (6D1) on 8 Jan 2017 and 8 Dec 2017, and a Fujifilm X70 fixed-lens prime (X70) on 3 March 2020. I carried out all photography, research, and writing for this post without request by or compensation from Starbucks. This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-gWN.
6 Responses to “Seattle’s 1st Starbucks, 1971–1976”
You are a wonderful historian, Henry. I wonder if Starbucks would be interested in this documentation of its first store?
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Hi and thanks, Patti! I’m sure someone somewhere in Seattle and at Starbuck’s has it all figured out ☺️ Given the world-wide empire that Starbucks has now become from a humble coffee shop, it’s interesting there’s no actual plaque memorializing that shop’s first and original location. I’m glad you enjoyed this little visual piece of Seattle history, and thanks again for your kind comment!
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It is surprising that there isn’t a museum of Starbucks history!!! They are very good at self-promotion!!
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Hi, Patti. Very true! It seems somehow obvious somebody in Starbucks headquarters (which is located south of the city’s two primary outdoor stadia) knows about it. But I’m unaware if there’s a brick and mortar location people can go see specifically the history of Starbucks, except for its inclusion within the city’s history at large on display at the Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI). Thanks again for your comment!
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This a wonderful report, it’s wonderful to see the original Starbucks again. Fond memories of purchasing coffee from Zev and his wife in 1971. But I would make one correction, the first espresso bar was actually in a coffee tea house on Brooklyn called the Last Exit on Brooklyn. It was there in 1974. The owner,who was black, moved the espresso bar to the Corner Market Building when it was remodeled as part of the Pike Market restoration in the late 70’s. I think it was called Le Capitale or something like that. If I recall, a cappuccino cost about $.50. Seemed quite dear at the time but was so good.
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Thank you very much for your kind comment, and for letting me know about “The Last Exit on Brooklyn”.
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