| Historic Name: |
Leona Apartments |
Common Name: |
Parkridge Apartments |
| Style: |
Queen Anne - Richardsonian Romanesque, Tudor |
Neighborhood: |
Queen Anne |
| Built By: |
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Year Built: |
1909 |
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| Significance |
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In the opinion of the survey, this property appears to meet the criteria of the National Register of Historic Places. |
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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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In the opinion of the survey, this property is located in a potential historic districe (National and/or local). |
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The Parkridge Apartments, formerly known as the Leona, were built in 1909, one of the early major apartment buildings on Queen Anne Avenue. The client was the St. Louis-Seattle Investment Company, and the architect was V. P. Von Erlich. Unfortunately, nothing is known about either the company or the architect, who may have been from St. Louis. The building name appears to have been changed to Park Ridge in the 1940s. The building was noted in the Historic Seattle survey in the 1970s and it remains a prominent feature on the Counterbalance.
This is a good example of early apartment development, dating from 1909. It was during this decade that apartments mushroomed on Queen Anne, to accommodate the vast influx of new arrivals, many of whom were young singles. In the years following the 1897 Klondike gold rush the city grew dramatically, doubling doubling between 1890 and 1900 and nearly tripling again by 1910, to 237,194. Also in this period (1903-11) the western half of Denny Hill to the south was sluiced into Elliott Bay, opening up access to Queen Anne. The Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition also attracted apartment development, as people anticipated the large number of visitors, many traveling some distance to stay for weeks or months. Queen Anne was close to downtown, with good streetcar service, and a number of apartments were built to accommodate anticipated visitors. The Parkridge is a fine example of the design attention paid to many of these buildings, where detailing and materials were used to reduce the impact of large structures. It appears to be largely intact; a few windows have been replaced and the original terra cotta cornice has been removed, probably due to earthquake damage.
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| Appearance |
| The three-story building has an L-shaped plan, with the short wing, at the east end, being only one bay wide. Cladding is brick with terra cotta voissoirs over the arched first floor windows. There is a prominent cornice, a wide brick belt course between the first and second floors, and a brick water table. Most windows have a center section flanked by narrower side panes, with multipaned transoms; those on the first floor are arched. The north wing has one-over-one wood windows. Three of the top floor windows have wrought iron balconies with French doors. There are two entries, one at the third bay and one at the rear near the angle of the ell, with arched doorways and casement windows above. The west side has a high brick retaining wall along the street, with a path up to the entry. The south side also has a high wall above the adjacent parking lot. |
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