The Mittelstadt Mortuary/Ballard Blossom building could be designated as a historic landmark.
The building that now houses the busy florist shop was originally a mortuary, built in 1906. According to the nomination document, a permit from 1915 indicates that the building had three uses: residential on the upper floor where the owners, the Mittelstadt family, lived and the first floor divided between the mortuary on the eastern side and a grocery on the western side. Remodels in 1923/24 took out the grocery store, and it became a full mortuary. In 1928, a garage was added, expanding the mortuary to include ambulance service. Mittelstadt was an undertaker and embalmer, and his business was originally called an undertaking parlor, according to the nomination.
In 1956 it was remodeled to look more modern, the garage taken out, and a chapel added. The mortuary was sold to Wiggen & Sons funeral directors in 1979, consolidating the mortuary business in the Wiggen & Sons Funeral Home building at 2003 57th Street NW. It was remodeled yet again in 1984, and was taken over by Ballard Blossom, which still exists there today.
The Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board will consider the nomination of the building at 1766 NW Market Street at a public meeting on Wednesday, August 16 at 3:30 pm at Seattle City Hall (600 4th Avenue, Floor L2) in the Boards & Commissions Room L2-80.
A copy of the nomination is available for public review at the Ballard Library or online.
If you can’t attend the meeting, you can submit written comments regarding the nomination to the Landmarks Preservation Board at the following mailing address by 3 pm on August 15:
Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board
Seattle Department of Neighborhoods
PO Box 94649
Seattle, WA 98124-4649
Photo circa 1937, courtesy Puget Sound Regional Archives
