| Historic Name: |
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Common Name: |
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| Style: |
Arts & Crafts, Spanish - Mission |
Neighborhood: |
Wallingford |
| Built By: |
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Year Built: |
1921 |
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| Significance |
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In the opinion of the survey, this property appears to meet the criteria of the Seattle Landmarks Preservation Ordinance. |
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This house was erected in 1920-21 and apparently replaced a cottage built on the site in 1901-02. Charles P. Haynes, a registered architect with offices at 511 Mehlhorn Building, designed the present structure for the owner, Ida C. Peek, who lived next door at 4207 Burke Avenue N. according to the information provided on the building permit. Ms. Peek’s husband, Lewis V. Peek, listed himself as agent on the permit application. The public record suggests that the Peeks planned to use day laborers to build the house; however, it is possible that a general contractor was hired to do the work. In any case, the names of those who actually built the structure are unknown. The basement garage is an original component of the design.
This residence is significant as an intact, well-maintained, example of arts & crafts mission design, a style of housing that is rare in the Wallingford neighborhood. When, in 2004, this property was initially considered for inclusion in the Wallingford Neighborhood Historic Survey, the historic integrity of the house was thought to have been compromised by the installation of a metal roofing product designed to mimic the clay tile roofing traditionally associated with mission style buildings. However, research indicates that this material has been in use at this residence from an early date, a fact that makes the structure an interesting case study in the history of materials.
The house was described by Folke Nyberg and Victor Steinbrueck as a building of significance to the Wallingford community in "Wallingford: An Inventory of Buildings and Urban Design Resources."
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| Appearance |
| This is a one story, stucco-clad residence on a concrete foundation over a 3/4 basement. The surface of the concrete foundation has been lightly scored to resemble stonework. The Assessor’s survey, completed in 1937, indicates that the exterior stucco is installed over hollow clay tile; it is not clear if the clay tile is a component of the structural system or simply functions as a veneer and base course for the stucco cladding. The hipped, tile roof (punctuated by a single, bell-tower type gable in the middle of the south elevation) and the stucco cladding detailed to suggest the masonry architecture of the American southwest are the primary Spanish colonial revival elements of this structure. The horizontal bias in the elevations (achieved by ganging together vertical elements in horizontal bands and by maintaining a continuous eave line), the detailing of the porch trellis, and the muntin configuration at the individual windows are all arts & crafts elements.
Close examination reveals that the roofing is actually a metal product shaped to resemble clay “mission” tile, and research suggests that this material, or a similar product, has been in use at this house since at least 1937. The Assessor’s survey completed in that year describes the roofing material as “metal tile.”
The house is entered approximately at the center of the east elevation. The door and entry porch are located in a notch at the southeast corner of a hip-roofed wing that extends eastward from the core of the house toward Burke Avenue. The concrete entry stairs rise between capped and stuccoed sidewalls to the porch, which is entered through a square archway in the southernmost third of the wing’s east façade. Centered in the wall to the north of the entry archway is a group of four windows, each consisting of a single tall sash divided into six lights in a 2 x 3 pattern over a much larger seventh light. The lack of obvious hardware suggests that these windows are fixed; however, they may function as casements or as exceptionally tall awning windows. A thick horizontal decorative element projects from the surface of the building at the base of the window openings. It is finished with stucco and painted to suggest a cast masonry sill. This is a typical detail found at all of the structure’s window openings.
The archway features decorative corbels at the ends of the integral lintel that stretches over the opening; however, all of the components of the archway are stuccoed so that the opening appears to be cut or cast into a masonry wall. A nearly identical archway opens to the south side of the wing onto an extension of the porch that stretches across the east face of the core of the house. Two windows, identical in configuration to those at the east façade of the wing, are paired and centered in the north wall of the porch, on axis with the south-facing archway. The entry door itself is centered in the piece of the core’s east wall just to the north of the south-facing archway (on axis with the entry steps and the east-facing archway). Centered in the wall to the south of the south-facing archway is another group of four windows configured to resemble the group at the east facade of the wing.
A nearly flat, roofed trellis protects the porch extension. Timber rafters stretch from the east face of the house to a doubled beam at the east edge of the porch extension supported by a built up wood post at each end. The rafter tails, beam-ends, post capitals and post bases are all shaped and detailed in a manner typical of craftsman style work.
At the east end of the south elevation, a chimney rises against the wall and interrupts the eave of the hipped roof. To either side of the chimney is a double-leafed casement window. Each of the leaves of the two casements is sized and configured to resemble the sash utilized at the windows on the east elevation.
Near the middle of the south elevation, to the west of the chimney/window group, a large bay (or small wing) with a basement extends toward 42nd Street to the south. The south wall of the bay is gabled. The lower two thirds of this wall at the main level, and the entire wall at basement level, extends beyond the face of the east and west sidewalls of the bay. Four windows identical to those at the east wing of the house are ganged together and centered in the south wall of the bay at the main level. An attic vent (with stuccoed sill) is centered in the gable above. A stuccoed water table, part of a wide projecting horizontal band that wraps around the entire house at first floor elevation, visually separates the main level from the basement below. A pair of retaining walls makes it possible for vehicles to enter the house at basement level through a garage door centered in the south face of the bay’s basement wall. The City’s permit record indicates that the basement garage was an original component of the design; however, the door opening appears to have been modified to reduce its height, suggesting that the existing garage door may not be original. At each of the bay sidewalls, paired windows -- similar to those at the south wall of the bay -- illuminate the main floor level, and a single square window illuminates the basement garage.
Two double-hung windows, each with an upper sash divided into six lights in a 2 x 3 pattern over an undivided lower sash of equal size, are paired near the middle of the section of the south elevation to the west of the projecting bay,
The north and west elevations are difficult to observe because of mature landscaping and because the site is situated several feet above the level of the adjacent sidewalks and streets. A bay on a foundation projects about six feet from the north elevation. Its footprint is shown on the Assessor’s survey completed in 1937, which indicates that the bay is about twelve feet wide and begins about twelve feet west of the structure’s northeast corner. The pattern of fenestration cannot be seen well enough to describe accurately. At least three windows are located at the west elevation of the structure; two of them appear to be double-hung units with six lights in the upper sash over an undivided lower sash. The three windows vary in size and appear to be pragmatically placed.
The metal gate at the top off the stairs rising through the front yard retaining wall from the sidewalk to the walkway leading to the entry was installed very early in the life of the building.
One chimney appears to have been removed; a metal chimney appears to have been added (according to the City’s permit history, a wood stove was installed at this address in 1980). No other significant modifications are apparent. |
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