81 Vine

The Building Story

A printing building that helped shape Growing Vine Street

81 Vine began in 1914 as the brick and timber home of the Frayn Printing and Publishing Company. Geise Architects renovated it in 1995, introducing condominiums above ground-floor commercial space. A further two-story penthouse addition followed in 1999. Those stages make the building a layered example of Belltown’s change from industrial and commercial uses to a residential neighborhood.

The building also has a distinctive connection to the Growing Vine Street project. The city’s historical inventory describes rooftop planters and functional downspouts carrying water to cisterns below. That relationship between architecture and the street is part of the address’s identity, alongside the differences between homes in the original printing structure and those in the later addition. Buyers comparing 81 Vine should pay attention to the specific level and construction phase, since a shared building name does not imply identical interiors or exposure.