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Summary for 955 16th AVE / Parcel ID 1336800140 / Inv #

Historic Name: McCoy, Patrick, House Common Name:
Style: American Foursquare Neighborhood: Capitol Hill
Built By: Year Built: 1906
 
Significance
In the opinion of the survey, this property is located in a potential historic districe (National and/or local).
This house was built for Patrick W. McCoy by contractor W. A. Perk. It was built in 1906, right at the height of the early development of James Moore's Capitol Hill plats. It is a good example of an American Foursquare, although unusual in its use of stucco cladding, which, combined with the arched porches, gives the house a pronounced Mediterreanean Revival feeling. It was included in the book Homes and Gardens of the Pacific Coast in 1913. 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 block is within the original Capitol Hill of James A. Moore, who gave the area its name. In 1900 Moore, who had already developed other Seattle neighborhoods, purchased and began platting 160 acres, roughly between 11th and 20th avenues, from Roy Street north to Galer. Before selling lots for construction, he graded and paved the streets (eliminating the dust that plagued many sections), installed sidewalks, water mains and sewer lines, and planned for street lights and telephone poles. Lots went on sale in 1901, heavily promoted to attract local business leaders as residents. The response was immediate. The quality infrastructure, convenient transportation, schools and other amenities proved to be very popular and the area was largely developed, with sizable, attractive houses, within only a few years.
 
Appearance
This house has the typical hipped roof of the Foursquare, with a hipped dormer on the front and two dormers on each side. A projecting hipped-roof porch, with arched openings, runs across the entire width and wraps around to the north side. There is another arch at the northeast corner of the second floor, where the window is recessed to form a small arched porch. The first floor has clapboard cladding, with heavily-troweled stucco on the second floor. The north elevation has a hipped roof bay, with a rounded bay on the south. Windows are mostly one-over-one double-hung sash, except for beveled leaded sidelights flanking the door. There is a small service porch at the southwest corner.

Detail for 955 16th AVE / Parcel ID 1336800140 / Inv #

Status: Yes - Inventory
Classication: Building District Status:
Cladding(s): Stucco, Wood - Clapboard Foundation(s): Concrete - Poured
Roof Type(s): Hip Roof Material(s): Asphalt/Composition
Building Type: Domestic - Single Family Plan: Rectangular
Structural System: Balloon Frame/Platform Frame No. of Stories: two & ½
Unit Theme(s): Architecture/Landscape Architecture
Integrity
Changes to Plan: Intact
Changes to Windows: Intact
Changes to Original Cladding: Intact
Major Bibliographic References
Williams, Jacqueline B. The Hill with a Future: Seattle's Capitol Hill 1900-1946. Seattle: CPK Ink, 2001.
Calvert, Frank. Homes and Gardens of the Pacific Coast. Vol. 1, Seattle. Beaux Arts Village: Beaux Arts Society Publishers, 1913.
Swope, Caroline T. Classic Houses of Seattle: High Style to Vernacular 1870-1950. Portland OR: Timber Press, 1905.

Photo collection for 955 16th AVE / Parcel ID 1336800140 / Inv #


Photo taken Dec 05, 2006
App v2.0.1.0