Historical Background

Ella L. Ramhorst, whose father, brother and husband worked for the Pacific Stone Company, composed the following essay to accompany the donation of the photograph albums.

Though Ramhorst refers to the company as the "Pacific Cast Stone Company," no city directory listings could be found under that company name. Listings occur for the Pacific Stone Company from 1926 through 1938; it is not known whether the company existed under a different name prior to 1926.

The Pacific Cast Stone Company, Seattle, 1920-1932

This little story is written to accompany the album, pictures and old news stories of the Pacific Cast Stone Co. founded by the Swartz brothers on Leary Way in the Ballard district of Seattle around 1920.

In the Spring of 1922 my father, Frank Lemon, a sculptor and modeler in clay, had returned to our home in suburban Chicago after completing the modeling of two large panels of dancing girls for a new movie palace in Dallas, Texas. He was wondering what he would do next, and was reading the paper when he said to my mother "This looks interesting, Nellie, modeler wanted in Seattle, Wa[shington] by the Denny Renton Clay and Coal Company."

"You could try it," she said. And so he did, with the agreement that if he liked it in that town of the far Northwest, mother, my two brothers, little sister and I would come West when school was out in June. Soon his letters came pouring back, exulting in the beauties of the Puget Sound country and the impressive city of Seattle; five days on the trains from Chicago.

At that time, Denny Renton Clay and Coal was making the terra cotta tile and ornamentation for the trim of Garfield High School. My Dad was amused that the architect[ure was] called Moorish in style. Many young people today have never heard of terra cotta (earth baked), or of artificial cast stone which succeeded it in the 20s for use in construction and trim of buildings. In 1923 Frank Lemon left Denny-Renton to be chief modeler for Pacific Cast Stone Co. Soon after in 1924, the Swartz brothers sold the company to two couples from New York, Mr. & Mrs. John R. Pels and Mr. & Mrs. Wm. Tucker. They bought it as a business opportunity for son Gilbert Tucker and his recent bride, Martine Pels. With John Pels as President and Wm. Tucker as V.P. and Gilbert Tucker as manager and amiable salesman the company prospered, as Seattle was growing prodigiously until the Great Depression of the 30s, when their last big contract, the Exchange Building, was completed in 1932. No other big building was built in downtown Seattle until 1945 after the second World War.

Before the second world war architects were much more lavish in ornamentation than since, be it Gothic or Greek or Romanesque or whatever, so my father was kept very busy at the stone company and soon my younger brother David Lemon was apprentice modeler with him, and later became a very fine sculptor in modern style, while my father preferred classic.

The most ornate Seattle building trimmed in cast stone was the theater on 7th and Olive, originally named Mayflower, later the 7th Avenue. The cast stone building which my father admired most because it was true to Romanesque style was the Chamber of Commerce building at 2nd and Columbia. He enjoyed working with and admired architect Carl Gould who designed the Gothic U. of W. library and others trimmed in cast stone on the campus.

These memories bring to mind an amusing story regarding a model made by David Lemon for St. Edward's Seminary being constructed at Juanita on the NE shore of Lake Washington. The model was a head of Jesus to be a center stone over an entrance. When a priest came to see if it was OK, he looked at it for a while and then said "I am afraid you have a twinkle in his eye." David restrained a smile and with a few strokes with a modeling tool made a slight change. The seminarian smiled and said, "That will be fine."

The Bon Marche on 3rd and Pine was faced with both natural stone and artificial cast stone. Pacific Stone had hoped to do the entire facing of the building, but real natural Indiana limestone was chosen for the smooth part of the exterior, while cast stone using real limestone aggregate was used to make the ornamental trim.

When Gilbert Tucker came to Pacific Stone, he brought with him several draftsmen who had worked with him at Bedford Stone in Tuckahoe just north of New York City. One of them, young, bright and handsome Fred Ramhorst soon became chief draftsman and a great friend of my older brother Jack who was one of the five or six draftsmen there. As you can guess by the name of the undersigned, a romance developed between Jack's sister and his friend and they were married in 1926 when Pacific was a flourishing company.

Ella Lemon Ramhorst, March 26, 1991