Old Ballard Hotel Gets Extreme Makeover
Hotel Ballard is back with exciting modern updates and its original Old World elegance.
By Jana Moseley August 9, 2011
This article originally appeared in the September 2011 issue of Seattle magazine.
Ballard residents, rejoice: A new boutique hotel gives visitors an alternative to sleeping on your couch.
Built in 1902 for the American Scandinavian Bank (the words “Bank Building” still appear on the façade), the two-story building at the heart of Ballard Avenue became a hotel in 1920. In more recent decades, it served as a rundown refuge offering weekly residence rates.
Enter Mark Durall, general manager at Olympic Athletic Club (across the street), armed with a vision of returning the building to its glory days. The revamped hotel ballard, open since July, is fully updated, but retains its Old World elegance with original trim, fir flooring and a striking ceiling medallion in the light-filled lobby.
Rates for the 16 rooms range from $79 to $229 (the highest price gets you a private bathroom; other rooms share facilities down the hall), and guests can access Olympic’s gym amenities free of charge. You may want to stay there yourself.
5300 Ballard Ave. NW; 206.789.5011; hotelballard.com.
Follow Us
The Rise of the Experience Economy
REI brings back guided travel, betting that memories matter more than stuff.
In my household, with two young boys under the age of five, we often have to remind them to take things back. Did you really mean to tell dad that his dinner isn’t good? You might want to take that back. Did your brother deserve to be hit? Let’s rethink that one. Extreme analogies aside,…
Bellevue Is Treating Accessibility Like Infrastructure
A partnership with Wheel the World makes it easier to plan travel with verified details.
For a lot of people, the hardest part of travel planning isn’t arranging flights or booking a hotel. It’s figuring out whether a place will actually work for your needs once you get there. Bellevue has partnered with Wheel the World, a travel platform used worldwide, to verify accessibility details for hotels, attractions, restaurants, and…
Northwest Enters Winter After Warmest Fall on Record
Unseasonably high temperatures and rain instead of snow have pushed regional snowpack to record lows for this point in the season.
Across the Northwest, a record-warm fall and lack of snowpack going into the winter is putting more drought pressure on Oregon, Idaho, Washington and western Montana. Despite record rain in western Washington recently, and earlier this year in central and southern Oregon, the showers are filling up already overdrawn reservoirs in many areas, scientists said…
Renew Yourself in Bellingham, Washington
Images courtesy of Visit Bellingham Unwind and reset in 2026 with a trip to peaceful Bellingham, Washington. Located between the stunning Cascade Mountains and the tranquil Salish Sea, there’s no better place for a trip packed with quiet moments in nature combined with the amenities of a culturally rich college town. Bellingham is known for…