| Historic Name: |
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Common Name: |
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| Style: |
Arts & Crafts - Swiss Chalet |
Neighborhood: |
Beacon Hill |
| Built By: |
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Year Built: |
1911 |
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| Significance |
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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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Polk directories list Oscar W. and Anna Austin as the residents from ca 1926 through ca 1941. Mr. Austin worked as a contractor during the late 1920s. By 1937, he was president of Central Millowork and Lumber Company Inc. By 1949, Sigurd Berge occupied the residence through 1970.
Prominent Seattle architect Ellsworth Storey (1879-1960) was born in Chicago and studied architecture at the University of Illinois. He came to Seattle in 1903. Storey is best known for his residential designs in Seattle and his later work at Moran State Park on Orcas Island. Storey designed many houses in the Mount Baker neighborhood, ranging from the modest cottages located near Colman Park to the imposing Classical (Georgian) Revival style Phiscator Estate house at 3311 Cascadia Avenue. Storey worked in a variety of eclectic styles; however, his most original designs combined Chalet, Arts and Crafts, and Prairie School influences into a unique style adapted to the Northwest region (Hildebrand in Shaping Seattle Architecture 1994, 107). Other important houses in the Mount Baker area include three houses for Robert M. Dyer, Sextan Swanson house and Swanson and Austin house (both 1913) on Hunter Boulevard, and the Robert M. Evans house (1913). Storey also designed the Beacon Hill Congregational Church (1910, now Beacon Hill First Baptist Church), University Presbyterian Church "Inn" and the Sigma Nu fraternity in the University District.
During World War I, when the shipbuilding industry was creating an influx of residents to Seattle, there was a perceived need for another school on Beacon Hill. In 1918, the Robert Fulton School was built to relieve overcrowding of the York School in the Rainier Valley (John Muir School). A large apartment building that had been planned for the neighborhood was never built, however, and the school did not receive the population of students that had been projected. It closed in 1922. The Seattle Parks Department leased the site for a playfield for many years. In 1960 an all-portable school was located there as an annex to Beacon Hill Elementary School. By 1963, 300 students were housed there and the School Board elected to make the site a permanent school location. It was named after Captain George Kimball, who had headed the Junior Safety Patrol in Seattle from 1928 to 1961. A permanent school building opened on the site in 1971, designed by Durham, Anderson & Freed.
Beacon Hill is a long north-south tending ridge located southeast of downtown Seattle and stands 350 feet at its highest point. The hill’s steep topography deterred substantial Euro-American settlement through the early 1880s. Then, development of the area was stimulated by the introduction of streetcar lines in the 1890s, its proximity to Seattle’s main industrial area to the west, and the regrading of the hill’s north end in the early 1900s.
Originally acquired by the City in 1898, Jefferson Park was integrated into Seattle’s Olmsted system of parks, and the Olmsted Brothers prepared a plan for the park in 1912. The first public golf course west of the Mississippi opened at Jefferson Park in 1915. Jefferson Park has exerted a profound positive influence on the development of the Beacon Hill neighborhood.
Because of its proximity to the International District, Japanese and Chinese families moved to Beacon Hill starting in the 1920s. World War I and II stimulated a surge in housing development associated with wartime industry. The construction of Interstate 5 in the 1960s and Interstate 90 in the 1980s sliced through the neighborhoods and contributed to Beacon Hill’s relative isolation. Today, Beacon Hill is an ethnically diverse working class community, which has a mixed Asian, Chicano, African American, and Caucasian population.
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| Appearance |
| Built in 1911, this compact, Swiss Chalet-influenced, Arts & Crafts style, single-family dwelling stands on a rectangular corner lot. The building is oriented to South Horton Street on a sloping site at street level. This 954 square foot, single-story house with a full basement features an L-shaped plan, measuring approximately 24’ by 31’ by 15’, with a small front stoop. A poured concrete foundation supports the wood frame, shingle-clad superstructure. Half-timbering accents the gable ends. Asphalt composition roofing covers the cross gable roof. Broad eave and gable overhangs with decoratively cut bargeboards define the roofline. Wood sash multiple-pane windows with painted wood casings provide day lighting. A short flight of stairs leads to the front entrance. A brick chimney services the building. |
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| Status: |
Yes - Inventory |
| Classication: |
Building |
District Status: |
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| Cladding(s): |
Shingle |
Foundation(s): |
Concrete - Poured |
| Roof Type(s): |
Gable |
Roof Material(s): |
Asphalt/Composition |
| Building Type: |
Domestic - Single Family |
Plan: |
L-Shape |
| Structural System: |
Balloon Frame/Platform Frame |
No. of Stories: |
one |
| Unit Theme(s): |
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| Integrity |
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Changes to Original Cladding: |
Intact |
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Changes to Plan: |
Intact |
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Changes to Windows: |
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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City of Seattle. Survey of City-Owned Historic Resources. Prepared by Cathy Wickwire, Seattle, 2001. Forms for Ravenna Park structures.
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Tobin, Caroline. (2004) "Beacon Hill Historic Context Statement."
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Architects Reference Files, Special Collections and Preservation Division, University of Washington Libraries.
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Shaping Seattle Architecture: A Historical Guide to the Architects. Jeffrey Karl Ochsner, ed. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1994.
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Thompson, Nile and Marr, Carolyn J. Building for Learning, Seattle Public School Histories, 1862-2000. Seattle School District No. 1, 2002.
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