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(Image: Cornish College of the Arts)
The Cornish College of the Arts is ready to sever its final connection after more than a century of dance and music education on Capitol Hill.
Kerry Hall, the three-story studio and performance hall at E Roy and Broadway where Nellie Cornish called home at the time of the school’s 1914 founding and part of the school for more than 100 years, is now for sale.
“This is an exciting moment for Cornish College of the Arts,” Emily Parkhurst, chair of the board of trustees, said in a statement. “The decision to sell Kerry Hall completes the Board’s plan to unify the campus in South Lake Union, first outlined in 2007.”
CHS reported here in 2021 on preparations for the property sale as Cornish sought to solidify its growing presence in South Lake Union.
The announcement did not include a price tag for the property. Cornish says proceeds from the sale will be “reinvested into Cornish’s existing facilities and operations, allowing the college to continue to grow.” The school says its enrollment is expected to exceed 530 students in the 2024/2025 school year.
The hall in leaf-ier days. Large elms on the property came down in 2023
The property and the 1921-built, three-story, 31,900-square-foot building sit just off Broadway in an area protected by a city landmark district but near where a new wave of development is starting to form. A few blocks east, a six-story “U-shaped” mixed-use project is moving forward on the Broadway’s block home to the popular Bait Shop bar. To the north, St. Mark’s is moving forward to redevelop a portion of its campus to create new affordable housing that will meld a new building with an adaptive reuse of the historic St. Nicholas building.
The nonprofit Cornish appears uninterested in exploring opportunities like Seattle’s proposed Connected Communities program hoped to ease affordable housing development by “community-based organizations,” instead putting the property up for sale for a developer or another organization to take the parcel and the old building into a new future.
“Nestled in the Harvard Belmont Landmark District, it exudes a timeless architectural appeal with its white façade and classical design elements,” the school says in the announcement. “Inside, it houses classrooms, studios, rehearsal spaces, and a large performance venue. It is listed on the National Registry of Historic Places and is zoned LOWRISE3 (LR3).”
(Image: King County)
Under the district rules, any major changes or redevelopment involving the building would need to be approved by the city’s landmarks officials. Any redevelopment or an adaptive reuse overhaul of the building would have a nearby precedent. The old Harvard Exit Theater across the street was overhauled and reopened in 2018 to serve thousands every year as the home of the Consulate of Mexico in Seattle.
Changes at Kerry Hall will be complicated by the building’s historic status. The 1921 building originally known as “Cornish Hall” before being renamed to honor the leader of a foundation created to save the school. has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1977, though that does not necessarily protect it from changes. It also sits within the Harvard-Belmont Landmark District, a city designation, which could offer it protection in the form of specific requirements surrounding any changes to the building and extra levels of review before almost anything can be done.
The sale of Kerry Hall will mark the end of a 110-year-old relationship between Cornish and the neighborhood.
The school was founded in 1914 at the corner of Broadway and Pine. That building was rejected for Seattle landmark status and is now part of a redevelopment that will create new housing and a new YouthCare Academy on the corner.
Kerry Hall’s final days with Cornish will be mostly quiet. The school says it has transitioned most instruction to its main campus
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