• Style: Tudor Revival
• Architect: Bebb & Mendel
• Builder: J. N. Johnson

Description

Permission to build the original carriage house to the Shafer Baillie Mansion was granted by permit #124550, dated July 14, 1913. It specified that Bebb & Mendel would design the structure, and that J.N. Johnson would build it – just like the accompanying mansion. While it is a historic property and the remodeled, expanded building remains a stately Tudor structure, its appearance has changed significantly from when it was used as a carriage house.

History

The original owner of this building, Samuel S. Loeb, was a founder and president of Seattle's Independent Brewing Company. He was born in Indiana, son of a brewer. After working in several other businesses he came to Tacoma in 1889, and started a short-lived wholesale liquor business. Loeb then formed the Milwaukee Brewing Company of Tacoma (out of the assets of the earlier United States Brewery of Tacoma). He tripled the output, and sold his beer throughout the Puget Sound region. Around 1902 to 1903, he came to Seattle and formed the Independent Brewing Company, with operations in South Seattle. His company was well-known as the manufacturer of "Old German Lager". However, seeing the specter of Prohibition, he moved to San Francisco around 1917.

The next owner, Alexander Baillie, was a native of Scotland. Employed by the shipping company of Balfour, Guthrie & Co., he came to Portland in 1880, Tacoma in 1887, and later resided in Seattle for about 20 years. He became a partner of the shipping company in 1906, and then later its president. The Seattle Times called him "a man of world-wide influence and assuredly one of the great shipping powers in this country." He brought golf to the West Coast, establishing in Tacoma the first golf course on this side of the Mississippi. He was president of the Rainier National Park Company and also the Rainier Club.

Julius Shafer bought the property in 1928. Julius Shafer and his brother Issie came to Seattle around the year 1888, and with $700 in savings, opened a small clothing store. Through hard work, they grew their business, and they became prosperous in part by selling goods to the Klondike prospectors. They relocated from store to store as they needed more space, eventually asking James A. Moore and G. Henry Whitcomb to build the Arcade Building, extending a full block downtown. The Shafer Brothers invested their profits into Seattle real estate, forming the Shafer Brothers Land Company, and owning the Mutual Life Building (now owned by Historic Seattle), the Clemmer Theater (believed to be the first U.S. theater constructed especially for the showing of motion pictures), among other properties.