Seattle Historical Sites

Summary for 4534 Thackeray PL / Parcel ID 8818400320 / Inv #

Historic Name: Common Name: Style: American Foursquare - Craftsman Neighborhood: Wallingford Built By: Year Built: 1909   Significance This house was erected in1908-09 for owner Mrs. Ella M. Wakefield (the widow of Frank B. Wakefiled). The names of the builder and the designer are not noted on the permit application. Ira B. Sonedecker came into possession of the structure by 1927. It was occupied by Lelund C. Burt in 1938. It was acquired by Arthur Woods in 1962, and then by William C. Dilworth in 1972. In 1975 Lisa Kohil and V. Calhoun were listed as residents of the structure in city directories; the owner was not. There is no record of a garage having been built at the site. There is also no record of any additions or alterations. However, the current owners report that, when they purchased the building in 2003, they discovered that keyed locks had been installed in all the upstairs bedroom doors, ceilings had been lowered in several areas, and some of the windows ha been replaced. The current owners suspect that the structure many have been used as a boarding house at some point in the past. Although the house is presently described as a duplex by the Assessor, the current owners appear to be using it as a single family residence. This structure is significant as an intact and fairly well-maintained American foursquare design with craftsman detailing built in the early years of Seattle’s first north end building boom.   Appearance This is a two story, clapboard and shingle clad frame residence on a concrete foundation over a full basement. The house appears to be an American foursquare design with craftsman detailing. The low slope of the hipped roof, the large brackets supporting the roof overhangs, the unenclosed soffits and the exposed rafter tails are all characteristic of the arts and crafts approach, although the detailing of the porch and windows, and of the south facing bay are reminiscent of late Queen Anne design. Hip roofed attic dormers, each faced with a pair of small windows, face north, west and south from the centers of their respective roofs. The entry porch is located in a notch at the northwest corner of the house. Engaged pilasters envelop the outside corners made by the walls of the porch; a similarly detailed built-up wood post extends from the porch deck to the base of the cased lintel at the outside corner of the porch, supporting the upper floor. A wide horizontal trim band extends the cased lintel around the entire structure, marking the elevation of the second floor and dividing the shingle siding of the upper level from the clapboard siding of the lower level. This band also functions as a frieze at the bay projecting from the south elevation. A similarly detailed water table wraps the house at porch level separating the bevel siding at the lower half of the exterior walls from the face of the concrete foundation below. The front door shares an axis with the wood entry stairs that approach the porch from the west between two framed sidewalls. High in the wall just north of the door is a stained glass window that as recently rebuilt by one of the current owners of the property. The brackets supporting the roof framing are spaced in pairs across the top of the front (west) façade. Each pair supports a section of beam that appears to collect the roof loads borne by a group of five rafters. Two large double hung windows are positioned just inboard of the outermost pairs of brackets at each end of the elevation. Each window has a small, undivided upper sash over a larger undivided lower sash. A somewhat wider double hung unit lights the front room of the house from the middle of the wall south of the porch. One of the current owners is systematically returning the upper sash of each of the large double hung windows to its original configuration. When first built, each sash was divided into numerous vertical lights by metal muntins that terminated in a “double house” pattern (a system of glass diamonds and triangles at the top and bottom of each sash). A hip roofed non-rectilinear bay, featuring three large double-hung windows that together comprise the central facet and two canted side facets of the bay, extends into the side yard from the middle of the south elevation at the main level. At the upper level of the house, three independent double-hung windows are spaced more or less equally across the south wall but are not rigidly coordinated with the regularly spaced braces supporting the overhang at the sidewalls of the house. Each of the braces supports a short piece of timber that collects roof loads from two or three rafters A similar bracket system is employed at the north elevation, where the window and door openings appear pragmatically rather than formally organized. A door is located at the half level between the basement and the main floor near the porch at the front of the house, and interrupts the water table at the structure’s north elevation. Two relatively small windows serve the first level east of the side door. Double-hung windows similar to those at the front of the house light rooms at the front and back of the upper level. A third double hung window appears to light a stair landing near the middle of the north elevation; a much smaller window is located high in the wall somewhat to the east of the stair landing window. A back porch originally situated in a notch at the northeast corner of the building appears to have been enclosed in the course of completing a kitchen remodel. The wood latticework that once screened the north side of the porch notch appears to have been incorporated into the face of the new exterior wall installed at that location. The rear elevation cannot be observed from the street. A similar trim band wraps the house at waist level, forming the head casing at the open sides of the front porch and former back porch and This latter trim band separates the shingles in the upper half of the exterior elevations from the bevel siding below. As noted above, the current owners believe that several internal alterations had been completed by the time they purchased the house in 2003. Exterior evidence of one of these projects is visible where the former back porch was enclosed at the northeast corner of the structure. No other significant modifications to the exterior of the house are apparent.

Detail for 4534 Thackeray PL / Parcel ID 8818400320 / Inv #

Status: Yes - Inventory Classication: Building District Status: Cladding(s): Shingle, Wood, Wood - Clapboard Foundation(s): Concrete - Poured Roof Type(s): Hip Roof Material(s): Asphalt/Composition-Shingle Building Type: Domestic - Single Family Plan: Rectangular Structural System: Balloon Frame/Platform Frame No. of Stories: two Unit Theme(s): Architecture/Landscape Architecture, Community Planning/Development Integrity Changes to Windows: Slight Changes to Original Cladding: Intact Changes to Plan: Slight 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.

Photo collection for 4534 Thackeray PL / Parcel ID 8818400320 / Inv #

Photo taken Aug 20, 2004