Historic Name: |
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Common Name: |
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Style: |
Arts & Crafts - Prairie Style |
Neighborhood: |
Mount Baker |
Built By: |
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Year Built: |
1922 |
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Significance |
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Built in 1922, this building owned by Herndon E. and Caroline Williamson. It was designed by Seattle architect, W. H. Whiteley, and Tumwater Lumber and Mills Company was the contractor. Mr. Herndon sold electrical supplies. By 1954, W. Ronald Benson resided in the building. In June of 1957, Hilton H. Lysons purchased the building for $13,750.
The Mount Baker neighborhood comprises two north-south tending ridges located southeast of downtown Seattle along Lake Washington. Initial development of the area occurred relatively late, post-1900, following the construction of the Rainier Avenue Electric Street Railway in the 1890s. York Station on Rainier Avenue and the Dose Addition were developed earlier than the Mount Baker Park Addition, platted in 1907 by the Hunter Tract Improvement Company. The Mount Baker Park Addition represents the core of the neighborhood and is its primary character-defining feature. Mount Baker Park is one of Seattle’s earliest planned residential communities that successfully integrated the natural environment and a relatively exclusive residential neighborhood in its layout of lots, streets, boulevards, and parks. The houses, primarily built between 1905 and 1929, reflect a variety of eclectic and Northwest-based architectural styles, and include designs by many prominent local architects.
Other important influences were the streetcar connection with downtown Seattle, the integration of local parks and boulevards into the Olmsted system, the construction of Franklin High School in 1912, and the building of the Mount Baker tunnel and Lacey V. Murrow Floating Bridge to Mercer Island in 1940. Today this middle-to-upper income neighborhood remains predominantly residential, is home to an ethnically diverse population, and retains much of its planned character.
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Appearance |
Built in 1922, this compact, Arts & Crafts style, single-family dwelling stands on a rectangular lot. The building is oriented to Thirty-Third Avenue South on a flat site 7’ above street level. This 1320 square foot, single-story house with a half basement features a rectangular plan, measuring 40’ by 33’, with a 4’ by 10’ front stoop. A poured concrete foundation supports the wood frame, clapboard-clad superstructure. Asphalt composition roofing covers the clipped side gable roof. Modest, closed eave and gable overhangs with cornice returns define the roofline. Wood sash 4:2 vertical lite windows provide day lighting. Windows feature painted wood casings. Two short direct flights of stairs lead from the sidewalk to the front stoop. Paired, Classically-influenced slender columns support a barrel vault soffit set within a gable roof. This stoop roof form is relatively common within the neighborhood. A gable end chimney services the building. The slender paired columns on a building of this stature and the remarkable vertical lite windows set this building apart as unique within the neighborhood. |
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Status: |
Yes - Inventory |
Classication: |
Building |
District Status: |
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Cladding(s): |
Wood - Clapboard |
Foundation(s): |
Concrete - Poured |
Roof Type(s): |
Gable |
Roof Material(s): |
Asphalt/Composition |
Building Type: |
Domestic - Single Family |
Plan: |
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Structural System: |
Balloon Frame/Platform Frame |
No. of Stories: |
one & ½ |
Unit Theme(s): |
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Integrity |
Changes to Original Cladding: |
Intact |
Changes to Plan: |
Intact |
Changes to Windows: |
Intact |
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Major Bibliographic References |
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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Historic Seattle Preservation and Development Authority. "Mount Baker: An Inventory of Buildings and Urban Design Resources."
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Mount Baker Community Club. Flowers We All Love Best in Mount Baker Park, (reprint of 1915 ed.)
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Tobin, Caroline. (2004) "Mount Baker Historic Context Statement."
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