German House, commercial building in Seattle, Washington

The German House, also known as the Assay Office and Prosch Hall, is a two-story brick building with a basement at 611 9th Avenue in First Hill, designed by John B. Parkinson and completed in 1893. It originally held two store rooms on the ground floor and a public meeting space above, and a vault room added on the south side in 1900 was doubled in 1906 into the short two-story annex seen today.

Publisher Thomas W. Prosch commissioned architect John B. Parkinson to design the brick building in 1893, with storerooms below and Prosch Hall above. In June 1898 Prosch leased it to the United States mint as a regional assay office; Fred A. Wing ran it, and by 1899 it took in more gold than any other assay office in the country. Assaying ended in 1932, and in 1935 the Deutsches Haus German club took over.

In 1935, after mortician E. E. Middlestadt led a movement to unite Seattle's German groups, the building became the Deutsches Haus. Viennese-born architect Theobald Buchinger redecorated the interior, and the former gold vaults were used to store German beer. The Steuben Society, the Swiss Society and the Swiss Male Chorus shared the building. The German Heritage Society now administers it and hosts concerts, balls and lectures on its history.

The building is located in First Hill, a central urban area with good accessibility and nearby shops, restaurants, and public transportation. Visitors should check ahead for scheduled events or cultural activities, as programming varies throughout the year.

The building played a central role in the gold rush and processed more gold in 1899 than any other office in the nation, before its vaults were later repurposed to store German beer for the social club. This unexpected transformation from gold storage to beer vault reveals the building's adaptability across more than a century.