John Singer Sargent portrait of his wife, Sarah Choate Sears. The Sears Building cost $18,000 (nearly $526,000 in 2020) to build, at the time the most expensive being built in Kirkland outside of the steel mill itself. The bricks were pressed from local clay at Peter Kirk's own brick works on what is now Peter Kirk Park. Originally intended to house a bank at the corner, Sears outfitted the entire interior and even hired a partial staff but with the arrival of the Panic of 1893, the doors, like the steel mill, never opened. In the years after the bust, the building, like many others in the area remained mostly vacant, though it, along with a large portion of the original town-site remained in the ownership of the Sears estate. The corner space was eventually occupied by a printing company and later a grocery store. An electric supply store occupied one of the smaller storefronts for over twenty years. At one point the building's upper floors, originally intended for office space, were divided into seven apartments. On August 3, 1982, it was added the National Register of Historic Places. As of 2005 the building housed a religious bookstore and a real estate office. In 2015 the building was purchased by Local attorney Sim Osborn and his wife Monica Hart, the couple bought the building with plans to preserve its historic features and aesthetics for future generations. See also Peter Kirk Peter Kirk Building Masonic Lodge Building References History " Kirkland Town of Brick Business Blocks 150 New Buildings" Unknown publication 1890. Retrieved December 31, 2009 [Kirkland Heritage Society] History of King County, Washington Office buildings completed in 1891 1890s architecture in the United States National Register of Historic Places in Kirkland, Washington Romanesque Revival architecture in Washington (state) Buildings and structures in Kirkland, Washington Office buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Washington (state)