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Summary for 3228 34th AVE / Parcel ID 9834200250 / Inv #

Historic Name: Common Name:
Style: Arts & Crafts - Craftsman Neighborhood: Mount Baker
Built By: Year Built: 1908
 
Significance
In the opinion of the survey, this property appears to meet the criteria of the Seattle Landmarks Preservation Ordinance.
Built in 1908, this building was purchased by William E. and Jessie E. Brown in May of 1918. The Brown’s resided in the building through 1965. Mr. Brown worked as an assistant buyer for Sears Roebuck and Company. Dean Handcock purchased the house for $10,500 in May of 1966. The Mount Baker neighborhood comprises two north-south tending ridges located southeast of downtown Seattle along Lake Washington. Initial development of the area occurred relatively late, post-1900, following the construction of the Rainier Avenue Electric Street Railway in the 1890s. York Station on Rainier Avenue and the Dose Addition were developed earlier than the Mount Baker Park Addition, platted in 1907 by the Hunter Tract Improvement Company. The Mount Baker Park Addition represents the core of the neighborhood and is its primary character-defining feature. Mount Baker Park is one of Seattle’s earliest planned residential communities that successfully integrated the natural environment and a relatively exclusive residential neighborhood in its layout of lots, streets, boulevards, and parks. The houses, primarily built between 1905 and 1929, reflect a variety of eclectic and Northwest-based architectural styles, and include designs by many prominent local architects. Other important influences were the streetcar connection with downtown Seattle, the integration of local parks and boulevards into the Olmsted system, the construction of Franklin High School in 1912, and the building of the Mount Baker tunnel and Lacey V. Murrow Floating Bridge to Mercer Island in 1940. Today this middle-to-upper income neighborhood remains predominantly residential, is home to an ethnically diverse population, and retains much of its planned character.
 
Appearance
Built in 1908, this Craftsman-influenced, Arts & Crafts style, single-family dwelling is oriented to Thirty-Fourth Avenue South on a flat site 4’ above street level. This 1125 square foot, one-and-a-half story house features a rectangular plan, measuring approximately 36’ by 26’, with a full width front porch. A poured concrete foundation supports the wood frame, clapboard and shingle (gable end) clad superstructure. Asphalt composition roofing covers the steeply pitched front gable roof. Modest, open eave and gable overhangs with exposed rafters, purlins, decorative brackets and modest bargeboards define the roofline. Wood sash windows provide day lighting. A short flight of stairs leads to the front porch. A low, closed railing with a thin decorative open railing above wraps the porch. Wood, floor to ceiling posts support the hipped porch roof. The decorative gable end shingles, single gable with the porch set within the roofline and the porch detailing set this building apart as an important stylistic example.

Detail for 3228 34th AVE / Parcel ID 9834200250 / Inv #

Status: Yes - Inventory
Classication: Building District Status:
Cladding(s): Shingle, Shingle - Combination, Wood - Clapboard Foundation(s): Unknown
Roof Type(s): Gable Roof Material(s): Asphalt/Composition
Building Type: Domestic - Single Family Plan: Rectangular
Structural System: Balloon Frame/Platform Frame No. of Stories: one & ½
Unit Theme(s):
Integrity
Changes to Original Cladding: Intact
Changes to Plan: Intact
Changes to Windows: Intact
Major Bibliographic References
City of Seattle DCLU Microfilm Records.
King County Property Record Card (c. 1938-1972), Washington State Archives.
Polk's Seattle Directories, 1890-1996.
City of Seattle. Survey of City-Owned Historic Resources. Prepared by Cathy Wickwire, Seattle, 2001. Forms for Ravenna Park structures.
Historic Seattle Preservation and Development Authority. "Mount Baker: An Inventory of Buildings and Urban Design Resources."
Mount Baker Community Club. Flowers We All Love Best in Mount Baker Park, (reprint of 1915 ed.)
Tobin, Caroline. (2004) "Mount Baker Historic Context Statement."

Photo collection for 3228 34th AVE / Parcel ID 9834200250 / Inv #


Photo taken Nov 05, 2003

Photo taken

Photo taken
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