Building a legacy
Seneca’s history began in 1910 with YWCA’s “Buy a Brick” campaign – a fundraiser which sold individual bricks to downtown businesses and working women for a dollar to raise construction funds for the new building. 93,000 bricks were sold in total, and when construction was completed in 1914, it became YWCA Seattle’s headquarters.
YWCA members breaking ground on a new headquarters at Fifth and Seneca (1913) and a certificate from YWCA's “Buy-a Brick” campaign
That same year, YWCA Seneca began offering career training, educational programs, hotel accommodations, and various other supportive services for women and girls. On average, 1,000 girls were housed there each month and over 126,000 meals were served annually. These numbers grew as the years passed, and the annual count of women and girls utilizing the building and resources Seneca offered grew from 22,000 in 1912 to 36,000 in 1950 (with an additional 17,000 served annually in the Central Area).
Over time, it became increasingly clear to YWCA that the only way to eliminate racism and empower women was to address the root causes of injustice. In tandem with YWCA’s advocacy work at the city, county, state, and federal level, in the 1980s and 1990s YWCA began building and acquiring permanent housing units to support low-income women and families.
Building a future
Housing is an integral part of fulfilling our mission, and for many women, stable housing is often the first step towards healing, safety, and long-term stability. YWCA is committed to fair housing practices that reject discrimination based on race, and we connect the women and families in our housing programs with other resources to help them transition from surviving to thriving.
Today, our Fifth & Seneca location in Downtown Seattle provides permanent, affordable, and safe housing options to women and families seeking shelter and support. Thanks to the new remodel, Seneca has the capacity to house over 100 women and families. Our Fifth & Seneca remodeling project gutted the top five floors of the existing building to create 114 new permanent housing units (98 studio apartments and 16 one-bedroom apartments) for low-income and formerly homeless residents. Other significant improvements for the building as a whole include major system replacements and floor redesigns, all constructed while still preserving the historical elements of Seneca’s interior and exterior.
Our newly-remodeled Seneca building is reopening with a ribbon cutting ceremony on Friday, March 7. Thank you to the City of Seattle Office of Housing and our various other private and public partners for funding this project and investing in affordable housing!
Learn more about Seneca’s history on our blog, and show YWCA your support so we can continue our vital work and support many more generations of women to come.
Ana Rodriguez-Knutsen is the Content Specialist for YWCA's Marketing & Editorial team. From fiction writing to advocacy, Ana works with an intersectional mindset to uplift and amplify the voices of underrepresented communities.
We share the stories of our program participants, programs, and staff, as well as news about the agency and what’s happening in our King and Snohomish community.
