Joseph A. Vance (1897-1948), born in Quebec, Canada, moved to Tacoma in 1890 for work with railway construction. By 1897, he had built and begun operating a small lumber mill operation near Elma, Washington -- near the site of Vance Creek County Park. He then founded the Vance Lumber Company in 1908, a highly successful milling operation which he sold in 1918.
Vance moved to Seattle and began to invest in real estate through the Vance Company, which operated at the Joseph Vance Building in downtown Seattle. He became involved with developing personal business and commercial properties, including the Vance Hotel (1927, later known as Hotel Max); the Lloyd Building (1928, named for one of Joseph's sons, and in 2010 designated a City of Seattle landmark) and the Vance Building (1929). Victor W. Voorhees designed all of these buildings
For the Vance Company, Voorhees also designed the remodel of the Seattle Engineering School in 1926 into the Marqueen Apartments (now MarQueen Hotel) in the Queen Anne neighborhood. Voorhees also produced the plan book catalog known as the Western Home Builder, the source of design for many Seattle homes, including many on Queen Anne.
By 1931, the Vance Company had also acquired hotels in downtown Seattle: the Camlin, Hotel Continental (later known as Hotel Seattle and then renamed Hotel Earl (named after one of Joseph's sons). As of 2021, the Vance Corporation continues to develop and manage Seattle properties.
Reference: "Vance Corporation returns to local ownership" (1998)
Joseph Vance Building
In 2019, ranked among Seattle's 10 most significant terra cotta buildings