Seattle Now and Then

Seattle Now & Then: Suess window, Frye Hotel, 1980

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(Click and click again to enlarge photos)

THEN: This 1980 photo of a three-panel window was taken at downtown’s Frye apartment hotel by West Seattle’s Curt Green, a descendant of the Smiths of Seattle’s early-1900s Suess & Smith art-glass company. After “Now & Then” sought details about the massive piece in 2020, readers responded that its Bavarian scene depicted ruins of Heidelberg Castle in the background and, up front, the two lead characters from a 1901 play, “Old Heidelberg,” which became an operetta and feature film, “The Student Prince.” (Curt Green)
NOW1: Here is a front view of the window’s middle panel, recently uncrated by Cathedral Glass in Portland after 26 years of storage in Skagway, Alaska. The firm’s owner, Nicholas Heinze, found that each of its three panels consists of about 190 pieces, 10 to 14 of which are cracked. He estimates needed repairs would cost $26,000. The notation “b. in” was added to the photo by Heinze. See all six Heinze photos below. (Nicholas Heinze, Cathedral Glass) If you have ideas for repairing and situating this piece, email Launi Treece.

Published in The Seattle Times online on Jan. 16, 2025
and in Pacific NW Magazine of the printed Times on Jan. 19, 2025

Bavarian art-glass window resurfaces, but where will it shine?
By Clay Eals

Long missing, a Northwest art-glass masterwork has re-emerged. But will the enormous window ever again gleam in public?

THEN: Suess Art Glass workers pose outside their store along Western Avenue circa 1906-09. The company’s name is fired onto a corner of the recently recovered Bavarian art-glass window. (Museum of History & Industry, Courtesy Deborah Suess Weaver)

The puzzle surfaced in 2020 when we profiled Seattle’s Suess & Smith Co., owned by German specialists in leaded, cut and stained glass who worked from 1901 to 1906 on Western Avenue in today’s Belltown. The firm morphed in into Suess Art Glass Co. and moved in 1909 to Virginia Street near Westlake Avenue, operating until at least 1951.

One of Suess’ distinctive creations — a 12-by-8-foot, three-panel landscape — depicted a verdant Bavarian scene and hung inside the Frye apartment hotel at Third and Yesler. There, in about 1980, Smith descendant Curt Green photographed it in hotel owner Abie Label’s office. Backlit, its rich hues glowed.

Later, the piece vanished. Since 2020, readers have filled out some details of its origin and whereabouts.

In 1967, Label first saw the window at the old Arlington Hotel at First and Spring, where a maintenance worker found it stored and damaged. “It had been there for decades,” says Label’s business partner Robert Roblee. Label made repairs and moved it to the Frye, where it hung for 30-plus years. Phyllis Lamphere, a former city council member, was a fan, often showing it to visitors.

Label’s friend, Robert White, a West Seattle dentist, bought the window from Label for $5,000 and crated and shipped it to Alaska in 1998 for display at a Skagway sculpture garden but died before that could happen.

NOW: After shipping the crate of three window panels to Seattle and storing it in Federal Way, Robert White’s daughter Launi Treece and her daughter Cassie (hidden) secure its triangularly stabilized crate to the bed of a family truck last August. The Heinzes then carefully drove it to Cathedral Glass in Portland. (David Treece)

When White’s widow, Diane, sold the garden to the Skagway Traditional Council in 2023, the stored crate emerged. Family shipped it to Seattle, stored it in Federal Way and last summer drove it to Cathedral Glass in Portland for evaluation.

NOW: For the first time since 1998, the window panels are exposed to light, at Cathedral Glass in Portland. After the firm’s owner, Nicholas Heinze, evaluated the piece, he re-crated it. Its future home is unknown. (Nicholas Heinze, Cathedral Glass)

When Cathedral owner Nicholas Heinze uncrated it, he found a mixed blessing. “It’s master-level stuff,” he says. “It blew us away. There’s magic in it. It was touched by hands that really knew what they were doing.” But he also spotted significant degradation.

Restored, it could be insurable for $144,000, but repairs would run $26,000 — sobering ballpark figures. The pressing question is: Where will it land? White family members speculate: a museum, train station, airport? A restaurant in Leavenworth?

“At first it was fun, as in ‘Wow, look at this amazing, historic thing,’ ” says White’s daughter, Launi Treece of Renton. “But the last few months, it’s been disheartening to learn how much damage there is, and it’s been hard to find a buyer. On one hand, it’s a treasure. On the other hand, we don’t know what to do with it.”

Who will supply the next piece of the puzzle?

WEB EXTRAS

Big thanks to Launi Treece, Diane White, Dakota White, Nicholas Heinze, Curt and Paula Green, David Label and Robert Roblee  for their invaluable help with this installment!

No 360-degree video this week, but below, you will find 9 additional photos and documents and 1 historical clip from The Seattle Times and Seattle Post-Intelligencer online archive (available via Seattle Public Library), Newspapers.com and Washington Digital Newspapers, that were helpful in the preparation of this column.

And be sure to click here to see our May 2020 “Now & Then” column about this window for further details and a wealth of “web extras.”

NOW: After shipping the crate of three window panels to Seattle and storing it in Federal Way, Robert White’s daughter Launi Treece (left) and her daughter Cassie finish securing its triangularly stabilized crate to the bed of a family truck last August. The Heinzes then carefully drove it to Cathedral Glass in Portland. (David Treece)
July 18, 2007, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, obituary of Frye apartment hotel owner Abie Label, who discovered the Suess window in 1967 at the old Arlington Hotel at First and Spring.
A March 2, 1998, letter from Felix Sernius to Robert White. (Diane White)
Nicholas Heinze’s evaluation of the Suess window panels in August 2024.

Click the thumbnails below to see the photos taken in August 2024 by Nicholas Heinze of Cathedral Glass of the three Suess window panels — two for (exterior and interior) for each panel:

 

2 thoughts on “Seattle Now & Then: Suess window, Frye Hotel, 1980”

  1. Wonderful that the family is still involved. A true legacy.. Lets hope a viable solution and permanent home can be found.

    Reply

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