Historic Register Tour - Paulsen Building

HISTORIC NAME	August Paulsen Building/Paulsen Medical and Dental Building
COMMON NAME	The Paulsen Center
DATE BUILT	1908-11/1928-1929
ARCHITECT/BUILDER	Dow and Hubbell/Gustav A. Pehrson
PROPERTY STYLE	Beaux Arts/Neoclassical, Chicago/Commercial Style/Art Deco
ON THE SPOKANE REGISTER	Yes - added 11/18/96
NATIONAL REGISTER	No
IN A DISTRICT	No
DISTRICT	No
NEIGHBORHOOD	Riverside

STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE

Paulsen Center is one of the most prominent features in the Spokane skyline. It consists of two buildings: the August Paulsen Building, designed by architects Dow and Hubbel and built in 1908-11, and the Paulsen Medical and Dental Building, designed by architect Gustav A. Pehson and built in 1928-29. Both were named and built for mining magnate August Paulsen. Paulsen was born in Denmark in 1871, came to the United States in 1891 and to Spokane in 1892. In 1895 he invested five hundred dollars in the Hercules mine in the Coeur d'Alene mining district. In 1901, the mine struck a rich vein, making Paulsen one of the wealthiest men in Spokane.

In 1908, Paulsen commissioned the prominent architectural firm of Dow and Hubbell to design the best eleven-story office building money could buy. The Frederick Phair Company began construction in 1908 and completed the building in 1911. It is architecturally significant because it used the newest form of all steel construction which allowed it to be the tallest building in Spokane up to that time. It illustrates the early formula for high-rise construction, which divided a building into three parts: a base, a shaft housing identical floors of offices, and an elaborate cornice crowning the composition. The style is generally associated with The Chicago School which signifies the skyscraper movement and the influence of Louis Sullivan.

The Paulsen Medical and Dental Building was constructed next east and connects to the August Paulsen building. It was designed by Gustav Pehrson, one of Spokane's great architects, and built in 1928-29, after Paulsen had died. Pehrson designed the fifteen story skyscraper in the Art Deco style with Spanish and Moorish styled exterior and interior detailing. Its stepped crown rises to a set-back penthouse that members of the Paulsen family have occupied since the building was erected; this distinctive feature has long been a Spokane landmark.

View all of the Spokane Register Nomination for the Paulsen Center.