| Historic Name: |
Gaslight Inn |
Common Name: |
Gaslight Inn Bed & Breakfast |
| Style: |
American Foursquare |
Neighborhood: |
Capitol Hill |
| Built By: |
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Year Built: |
1910 |
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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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This is an excellent and ornate example of the American Foursquare or Classic Box house. Little is known of its history; it was built in 1910, but by 1937 was used as a rooming house and was owned by a bank. It is larger than most such houses; as a rooming house, it had 16 rooms, including four in the basement and another four in the attic, sharing five bathrooms. In contrast to the exterior, the interior seems to have been relatively plain, with no special features noted in the assessor record. A 12 x 20 foot addition was constructed on the rear at an unknown date.
The Foursquare was a popular house form in the first two decades of the 20th century. Capitol Hill has the city’s greatest concentration of American Foursquares--often called the Classic Box or Seattle Box, because of its local popularity. They were built primarily between 1905 and 1910. There are typically eight main rooms on two floors--living room, hall, dining room and kitchen downstairs and four bedrooms upstairs. Two reasons for the popularity of the form were that it provided a large amount of space for reasonable cost, and that it could easily be personalized for varying tastes and budgets. This one has particularly ornate wood trim and leaded glass windows.
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| Appearance |
| This is a very ornate example of an American Foursquare. It has the typical hipped roof with deep eaves with brackets and hipped dormers in front and on the side. The side dormer extends from the ridgeline. Cladding is clapboard with a wood water table. The projecting front porch extends across the center third of the first story; two square columns with ornate capitals support the flat roof. The first story has two three-part windows with leaded glass in the upper sections. The second story has a Palladian windows flanked by two round windows with very ornate surrounds. Flanking these are two large windows with leaded glass; these windows, and the center one, are each supported by series of numerous small carved brackets. The front dormer has an arched triple window. Each side elevation has a hipped-roof bay on the first floor level. Most other windows are one-over-one double-hung sash. |
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