| Historic Name: |
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Common Name: |
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| Style: |
Other |
Neighborhood: |
Beacon Hill |
| Built By: |
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Year Built: |
1928 |
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| Significance |
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Alvin, Rilla and Alvin Jr. Owen lived in the building from ca 1937 through 1941. Mr. Owen worked as a salesman for Dando Equipment Company. From 1949 through 1970, Harold H. Jack occupied the house.
During World War I, when the shipbuilding industry was creating an influx of residents to Seattle, there was a perceived need for another school on Beacon Hill. In 1918, the Robert Fulton School was built to relieve overcrowding of the York School in the Rainier Valley (John Muir School). A large apartment building that had been planned for the neighborhood was never built, however, and the school did not receive the population of students that had been projected. It closed in 1922. The Seattle Parks Department leased the site for a playfield for many years. In 1960 an all-portable school was located there as an annex to Beacon Hill Elementary School. By 1963, 300 students were housed there and the School Board elected to make the site a permanent school location. It was named after Captain George Kimball, who had headed the Junior Safety Patrol in Seattle from 1928 to 1961. A permanent school building opened on the site in 1971, designed by Durham, Anderson & Freed.
Beacon Hill is a long north-south tending ridge located southeast of downtown Seattle and stands 350 feet at its highest point. The hill’s steep topography deterred substantial Euro-American settlement through the early 1880s. Then, development of the area was stimulated by the introduction of streetcar lines in the 1890s, its proximity to Seattle’s main industrial area to the west, and the regrading of the hill’s north end in the early 1900s.
Originally acquired by the City in 1898, Jefferson Park was integrated into Seattle’s Olmsted system of parks, and the Olmsted Brothers prepared a plan for the park in 1912. The first public golf course west of the Mississippi opened at Jefferson Park in 1915. Jefferson Park has exerted a profound positive influence on the development of the Beacon Hill neighborhood.
Because of its proximity to the International District, Japanese and Chinese families moved to Beacon Hill starting in the 1920s. World War I and II stimulated a surge in housing development associated with wartime industry. The construction of Interstate 5 in the 1960s and Interstate 90 in the 1980s sliced through the neighborhoods and contributed to Beacon Hill’s relative isolation. Today, Beacon Hill is an ethnically diverse working class community, which has a mixed Asian, Chicano, African American, and Caucasian population.
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| Appearance |
| Built in 1928, this compact, Colonial Revival style, single-family cottage stands on a rectangular lot. The building is oriented to Twenty-Fifth Avenue South on a flat site 5’ above street level. This 954 square foot, single-story house with a full basement features a rectangular plan, measuring approximately 32’ by 26’, with a small front stoop. A poured concrete foundation supports the wood frame, shingle-clad superstructure. Asphalt composition roofing covers the side, clipped-gable roof. Modest eave and gable overhangs with rake trim and modest cornices define the roofline. Wood sash multiple-pane windows with painted wood casings provide day lighting. A short flight of stairs flanked by low brick cheek walls leads to the front entrance. Decorative brackets carry a gabled stoop roof. An external gable end brick chimney services the building. |
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| Status: |
Yes - Inventory |
| Classication: |
Building |
District Status: |
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| Cladding(s): |
Shingle |
Foundation(s): |
Concrete - Poured |
| Roof Type(s): |
Gable - Clipped |
Roof Material(s): |
Asphalt/Composition |
| Building Type: |
Domestic - Single Family |
Plan: |
Square |
| Structural System: |
Balloon Frame/Platform Frame |
No. of Stories: |
one |
| Unit Theme(s): |
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| Integrity |
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Changes to Plan: |
Slight |
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Changes to Original Cladding: |
Intact |
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Changes to Windows: |
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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City of Seattle. Survey of City-Owned Historic Resources. Prepared by Cathy Wickwire, Seattle, 2001. Forms for Ravenna Park structures.
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Tobin, Caroline. (2004) "Beacon Hill Historic Context Statement."
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Thompson, Nile and Marr, Carolyn J. Building for Learning, Seattle Public School Histories, 1862-2000. Seattle School District No. 1, 2002.
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