| Historic Name: |
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Common Name: |
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| Style: |
Arts & Crafts - Prairie Style |
Neighborhood: |
Wallingford |
| Built By: |
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Year Built: |
1919 |
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| Significance |
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This house was erected in 1919 by the owner Alex McInnis, who lived next door at 4119 Woodlawn according to Polk’ Seattle Directory the year the house was built. The permit included construction of a detached shed, 10’ x 16.’
There is no evidence that a garage ever existed at the site.
Marie Redenbaugh, a nurse, appears to have resided at this house from at least 1924 until 1936. A group known as the Investors Syndicate, with offices in the Northern Life Tower, appears to have acquired the structure in late 1937 (the listing for this group in the city directory indicates that the organization sold “Living Protection Annuities”). Charles W. Cooke appears to have lived at the house in 1938.
Permit records suggest that Francis R. Steele owned the structure in the early 1970s. The current owners appear to have purchased the house from Carole Richard and Steven Cordray in 2001.
This structure is significant as a fairly intact and well-maintained example of prairie style architecture built at the beginning of Seattle’s second north end building boom.
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| Appearance |
| This is a one story, clapboard and shingle clad frame residence on a concrete foundation over a half basement. The hipped roof, enclosed soffits, arts and crafts style porch, banded windows, and the horizontal sill element that wraps around the house at the base of the major windows all are elements of the prairie style.
The entry porch is situated in a notch at the northeast corner of the structure but extends toward the street. As a result small, hipped roof extends from the main roof toward the street to protect the porch. Battered built up wood piers support this roof extension at the southeast and northeast corners of the roof. These piers are, in turn, supported by capped brick pedestals. The entry stair accesses the porch from the east, is situated on axis between the corner pedestals, and is flanked by brick sidewalls. A window high in the wall at the back (west side) of the porch shares this same axis. After walking up the entry stair, visitors turn left to enter the house through the south wall of the porch. The brick pedestals and sidewalls appear to have been added at some point since 1937. The Assessor’s records indicate that these elements were originally clapboard clad wood framed elements of about the same size and proportions.
Four double-hung windows are ganged together and centered in the east wall of the house to the south of the porch. Each of the four units consists of a small upper sash divided into a single row of three vertically oriented lights over a larger undivided lower sash. The head casing for this group of windows also functions as a frieze that spans from the top of the window assembly to the base of the soffit at the underside of the roof overhang. This frieze appears to wrap in a continuous band around the entire building. Another trim band wraps the structure at the buildings waist, connecting the sills of most of the windows and dividing the shingle cladding above the band from the clapboard siding below.
This same window configuration and head casing detail is utilized at almost every window opening visible from the street (a few smaller double-hung units having upper and lower sash of the same size do not reach down to the extended sill line). The banding of the standardized windows combined with strong lines established by the roof fascia, frieze, and sill band give the design of the structure a strong horizontal bias.
The chimney is located near the front end of the south elevation. It is flanked two individual standard double-hung units. A group of four standard units are ganged together near the middle of the façade. Another single standard unit is located at the west end of the elevation. A smaller double-hung unit is located between the west end window and the gang of four.
At the north elevation, two standard units are paired just to the west of the notch containing the front porch at the east end of the facade. Another standard unit is located at about three quarters of the distance to the west end of the house. Between these standard units are a small square single-sash window abutting the base of the frieze and a small double-hung unit.
The back (west end) of the house is not visible from the street.
All of the windows feature wood storm windows that may have been added fairly early in the life of the house. As noted above, brick pedestals and brick sidewalls at the entry stair have replaced similar clapboard clad wood frame elements. The chimney has been altered with the addition of a new decorative concrete cap. No other significant modifications are apparent. |
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| Status: |
Yes - Inventory |
| Classication: |
Building |
District Status: |
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| Cladding(s): |
Brick, 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: |
one |
| Unit Theme(s): |
Architecture/Landscape Architecture, Community Planning/Development |
| Integrity |
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Changes to Windows: |
Intact |
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Changes to Plan: |
Slight |
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Changes to Original Cladding: |
Intact |
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| Major Bibliographic References |
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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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