An old school building in Belltown is starting to feel young again thanks to a recent face lift. The 1942-constructed Labor Temple — once owned + operated by the city’s labor unions — has been restored as a co-working hub. It will receive the 2023 Best Preservation Project Award from Historic Seattle on Thursday, Sept. 28.

Historic Seattle recently announced the five winners of its 2023 Preservation Award's program.

These annual awards, now in their 14th year, honor people, projects and project teams from across Seattle that exemplify the non-profits mission to “save meaningful places to foster lively communities.”

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One word can convey a lot. “Temple,” for instance, summons a lofty image: a cathedral, chapel or place of worship. So it makes sense that when America’s passionate labor movement arose in the late 1800s, those who conceived centers for workers to support each other seized the term as their own.

One word can convey a lot. “Temple,” for instance, summons a lofty image: a cathedral, chapel or place of worship. So it makes sense that when America’s passionate labor movement arose in the late 1800s, those who conceived centers for workers to support each other seized the term as their own.

The Seattle Labor Temple, a historic landmark built in 1942 with an art deco facade, that was formerly home to labor union offices, has re-opened as a boutique office building.

Two years after the landmarked Seattle Labor Temple went on the market, as the DJC first reported, local company Faul announced it will buy the half-block property in Belltown. King County hasn't yet recorded a sale for the two- and three-story building at 2800 First Ave.

Throughout the first anxious year of World War Two, the local Federation of Labor Unions completed the construction of their new Labor Temple at the northeast corner of First Avenue and Clay Street, and in the fall of 1942 the member unions – nearly 50 of them – moved to it from their old quarters here at 6th Avenue and University Street.