| Historic Name: |
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Common Name: |
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| Style: |
Arts & Crafts - Craftsman |
Neighborhood: |
Wallingford |
| Built By: |
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Year Built: |
1908 |
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| Significance |
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A permit was issued to “Mr. Jewel” for construction of a two-story frame building at this address in 1908. Jewel’s relationship to the property is not clear in the public record, and the name of the designer of the structure is not indicated.
A retaining wall was added to the site in 1909.
A tenant, Dr. George L. Bammert (who operated his dental practice at 125 Cobb Building), added a garage to the property in 1923. The owner of the property at the time was John E. Johnson, whose address is recorded as Davenport Hotel on the permit application. Another garage was built 1925-26 by Frank S. Lemon, a later owner who worked as a driver for Stewart Lumber Company. The existing garage is located at the northwest corner of the site and appears to have been recently “updated.”
The King County Property Record Card suggests that Thrine H. Johnson acquired the property in 1938. Johnson apparently shared the house with Edward A. Nelson, a building contractor, according to Polk’s Seattle Directory for that year.
Based on permit records, later owners appear to have included Peder Pederson, a commercial fisherman who acquired the house prior to 1961, and Andrew Frankel who owned it by 1989. The current owners purchased the house from Frankel through a third party in 2003.
This structure is significant as a fairly intact and well-maintained early example of the craftsman style. The house was erected in the early years of Seattle’s first north end building boom and exhibits some characteristic features of late Queen Anne housing. The powerfully articulated joints in the structure supporting the upper floor at the front porch are an especially interesting feature that set the tone of the design.
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| Appearance |
| This is a 1-1/2 story, shingle, clapboard and stucco clad frame residence on a concrete foundation over a full basement. The wide barge boards supported by carefully proportioned and shaped triangular knee braces, the unenclosed undersides of the roof overhangs, the exposed rafter tails, the powerfully articulated joints and the suggestion of projecting cross beams in the structure supporting the upper floor at the front porch, and the use of bungalow windows (double-hung units featuring a small divided sash over a larger undivided sash) are all elements of the structure associated with the craftsman style. The relatively steep pitch of the roof and the use of large gabled dormers at the north and south elevations that suggest cross gables are traces of late Queen Anne work that have survived in this transitional design.
The front porch occupies a notch that runs across the entire front (east) elevation of the structure. Four large square columns stand on the clapboard clad porch rail and support the upper floor at the front of the house. A short section of similarly dimensioned timber acts as a capital and corbel, allowing crossbeams to project from the front of the house while collecting loads from the implied timber lintels running across the face of the building at the base of the upper floor. At the northeast and southeast corner of the house, the lintel is extended in the form of a horizontal trim assembly that wraps around the house, separating the shingle siding above the trim assembly from the narrow clapboard cladding below.
The lower quarter of the front gable (the portion below the level of the eaves at the two side elevations) is clad with shingle siding. Three separate but symmetrically arranged double-hung windows stand on a sill extension molding that separates the shingle siding of the structure’s body from the stucco in the upper three quarters of the front gable. A bracket-supported shelf runs across the middle third of the elevation below the three double-hung windows. A piece of “half timbering” near the middle of the gable doubles as a head casing for the three double-hung units, each of which is configured in typical bungalow fashion with an upper sash divided into eight lights organized in a 2 x 8 pattern over a large undivided lower sash. Smaller single sash windows, each divided into six lights in a 3 x 2 pattern, stand on the sill extension molding outboard of the three double-hung units. Half timbering in the gable above the windows is laid out in a fan pattern.
The four posts at the entry porch define three structural bays. The entry stair rises to the porch at the northernmost of the three bays. The entry door is situated in the west (back) wall of the porch south of the centerline of the stair. North of the door, a leaded glass, single sash window is mounted high in the wall. In the wall to the south of the door, a fixed sash window has replaced a large double-hung unit that featured a small upper sash with leaded glass over a much larger undivided lower sash.
A shed-roofed, first floor level bay extends into the side yard somewhat west of the middle of the south elevation. Three double-hung windows, each with a small, undivided upper sash over a larger undivided lower sash, are grouped and centered in the bay. The sills of these windows are aligned with an extension of the porch rail cap molding that wraps the house. To the east of the bay, toward the front of the house is a fixed sash window that has replaced a large double-hung unit similar to that once located at the southern end of the porch. The sill of this large unit is also aligned with the porch rail cap. Centered in the wall to the west of the bay, a single double-hung unit floats in the field of clapboard siding above the sill extension, which separates the narrow clapboards at the body of the house from the larger clapboard skirting below.
A gabled dormer is located on the south-facing slope of the roof near the middle of the south elevation. Two modern slider type windows have replaced the four equally spaced, bungalow style double-hung windows that once were spread across the façade of the south-facing dormer. The head casing that extends over the new windows also separates the stucco cladding of the dormer’s gable from the shingle siding at the body of the dormer below.
Near the middle of the north elevation, a bay extends into the side yard. Two double-hung windows, each with a small, undivided upper sash over a larger undivided lower sash, are paired and centered in the bay to illuminate the first floor level. Like the windows at the south elevation, the sills of the north side units are aligned with the cap of the front porch railings. Four heavy wood brackets appear to support the bay at its base.
West of the bay, a door and a double-hung window are stacked vertically, the door at the half level between the main floor and the basement, the window apparently lighting a landing at the half level between the first and second floors. The window interrupts the trim band extension of the front porch lintel. A smaller double-hung unit is situated near the back end of the north elevation at the first floor level. Three single sash windows are somewhat haphazardly organized in the wall to the east of the bay. The largest interrupts the extension of the porch lintel. A basement window is centered under the bay, another is at the base of the wall to the east of the bay.
On the north-facing slope of the roof above is a gabled dormer. It is of approximately the same width as the bay but is set back so that its face aligns with the main wall of the floor below. The dormer is stucco-clad with two double-hung windows symmetrically placed a foot or two either side of the dormer’s centerline. The base of the half-timbering does double duty as a window head casing and the remainder of the timbering is arranged in a fan pattern in the gable above.
As noted above, two large double-hung windows at the front porch and south elevation have been replaced with large picture windows, and four smaller windows in the south facing dormer have been replace with modern metal slider units. No other significant modifications are apparent. |
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| Status: |
Yes - Inventory |
| Classication: |
Building |
District Status: |
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| Cladding(s): |
Shingle, Stucco, Wood, Wood - Clapboard |
Foundation(s): |
Concrete - Poured |
| Roof Type(s): |
Gable |
Roof Material(s): |
Asphalt/Composition-Shingle |
| Building Type: |
Domestic - Single Family |
Plan: |
Rectangular |
| Structural System: |
Balloon Frame/Platform Frame |
No. of Stories: |
one & ½ |
| Unit Theme(s): |
Architecture/Landscape Architecture, Community Planning/Development |
| Integrity |
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Changes to Windows: |
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Changes to Plan: |
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Changes to Original Cladding: |
Intact |
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| Major Bibliographic References |
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City of Seattle DCLU Microfilm Records.
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King County Property Record Card (c. 1938-1972), Washington State Archives.
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Polk's Seattle Directories, 1890-1996.
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