CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · Places & Architecture

Town Hall Seattle

Historic performance hall

Architectural plans, a scale model, maps and brass measuring instruments
Places and architectureInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 6, 2026
Entity authoritySource title only
Source-derived summary

Town Hall Seattle, or Town Hall locally, is a cultural center and performance hall located on Seattle, Washington, USA's First Hill at 1119 8th Ave. Built as Fourth Church of Christ, Scientist, Seattle, a Church of Christ, Scientist church, from 1916 to 1922, it was sold by the church to its current owners in 1998 and reopened in 1999. In 2017, Town Hall announced they raised $20 million for a "top-to-bottom" renovation. In January 2019, they announced construction issues delayed their planned reopening. Town Hall officially completed construction and reopened its doors to the public on May 16, 2019.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Town Hall Seattle” as historic performance hall. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA valuable geographic starting point for tracing changing names, boundaries, uses and administrative responsibility. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1119, 1916, 1922, 1998—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Town, Hall and Seattle can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the places & architecture register because the source frames it as historic performance hall. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 6, 2026. The first chronological checks are 1119, 1916, 1922 and 1998.

Critical limits

A single description cannot reconcile every naming convention, rebuilding phase or administrative transfer associated with a place. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.

Best used for
  • Historic place names
  • Jurisdictional context
  • Routes into maps and plans
Verify next

Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Town Hall Seattle”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Town Hall Seattle primary sources, Town Hall Seattle archive and Town research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Town Hall Seattle”?
  2. Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
  3. Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Town Hall Seattle” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.