Seattle Federal Reserve Bank Branch

wylk

Sometimes there are significant vaults/doors for sale. In Seattle, Washington, there is a former branch of the Federal Reserve Bank with a lovely Mosler door from approximately 1950. The bank branch moved to a newer building around 2008. Here are a few images:

Aside from the usual problems of extracting and moving such a beast, the door also comes with the entire building as part of the auction 🙁smirk):. Bidding may end soon and is currently sitting at 11.7 million dollars US:

http://realestatesales.gov/gsaauctions/aucitdsc/?sl=ZEATL915259001

Dean Nickel

Well the door will get easy to move…. when they take that building down. It will still be a beast to move but with the building above gone….

wylk

The last vault-door picture I posted was in error. It is clearly not the same door (stepped rather than a plug door) and is dated 1946, predating this building. It may have been the previous location of the Seattle bank but I’ve lost track of where I found the image.

wylk

The building ended up going for 16 million dollars (US) (http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2015/02/07/old-federal-reserve-branch-building-in-seattle.html) but so far the buyer hasn’t been identified. I did find one more image of a door:

It clearly shows one microswitch per combination lock and some of the wiring but how it gets from the vicinity of the time lock to the outside contact block is a mystery.

wylk

The buyer was finally revealed as local developer Martin Selig. He hasn’t shown specific plans but one article had this nice bit – “…he plans to incorporate a number of the existing features, such as the two massive bank vault doors, as art pieces…”

http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/blog/2015/04/martin-selig-is-the-new-owner-of-the-former.html

http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/blog/2015/04/heres-what-martin-selig-plans-to-do-with-the.html?page=all

wylk

The developer has revealed plans for the former Seattle Federal Reserve building –

https://www.djc.com/news/re/12080311.html

http://www.seattletimes.com/business/real-estate/high-rise-may-top-historic-low-rise-old-federal-building/

A 31-story office tower will be built on top of the old building. Quotes:

“The two-story vault underground and teller lobby, which aren’t landmarked, also can’t be remodeled without state permission.”

“The huge doors to the vault “will become sculptures of some kind,” [the developer] said, perhaps outside the building on Second Avenue.”

I’m hoping that once the cost of moving the doors is evaluated, they will stay right where they are now.