The second-empire-baroque–style Scandinavian American Bank Building is a nice example of the early-1900s tendency to flatter by imitation: its concrete surface is treated to look like stone. You can still see the ‘Bank Building’ sign embedded in the top corner of this building. It once housed the flop-house Starlight Hotel, but since 2011 has been home to the more salubrious Ballard Inn.
Scandinavian American Bank Building
Lonely Planet's must-see attractions
4.45 MILES
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3.52 MILES
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11 MILES
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1.13 MILES
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3.71 MILES
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3.52 MILES
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3.53 MILES
This streamlined, modern-before-its-time tower built for the 1962 World’s Fair has been the city’s defining symbol for more than 50 years. The needle…
0.71 MILES
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Nearby attractions
0.04 MILES
The GS Sanborn Building is Ballard’s only example of Romanesque architecture, a style that was popular on the East Coast in the 1880s. It has a sandstone…
0.07 MILES
Now lacking its decorative 3rd-floor corner turret, the narrow Junction Building (dating from 1890) has had all number of reincarnations in its 125-year…
0.09 MILES
Once the offices of the early local broadsheet, Ballard News, this is still one of the most impressive historic buildings in Ballard and one of the oldest…
0.11 MILES
A great example of the decorative brickwork that graces many of the buildings along Ballard Ave, the Portland Building has housed all kinds of businesses…
0.12 MILES
On the corner of Ballard Avenue NW and 22nd Ave is the original location of Ballard City Hall, sometimes called ‘Hose Hall,' which also contained the jail…
0.14 MILES
In case you forget where you are or the origin of the settlers to whom Ballard owes its existence, a quintet of flags fly over diminutive Bergen Place…
0.19 MILES
Ballard’s only major terracotta structure was built in the 1920s by the Fraternal Order of Eagles. It once held a community hospital and now houses shops,…
0.45 MILES
Reason alone to come to Ballard – if the culinary scene and waterside parks weren’t enough – is this delightful surprise of a museum dedicated to Nordic…