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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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Built in 1907, this building was owned by L. E. Roberts. He added an 8’ by 16’ porch and enclosed a porch. Clarence A. and Nina E. Brown moved into the building ca 1920. Mr. Brown was the district sales manager for Standard Underground Cable Company. In 1922, the Brown’s hired contractor, L. McCarter, to construct a garage on the lot. C. Brown lived in the building through 1938. By 1943, Charles E. Rutledge lived in the building. By 1954 through 1958, Gerald C. Steele lived in the building. Stephen M. Brown purchased the property in June of 1964 for $17,500 and remained through 1968. In February of 1970, Lloyd W. Jones bought the residence for $25,000.
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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