| Historic Name: |
Ruddies, Jennie, Residence |
Common Name: |
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| Style: |
Queen Anne - Shingle |
Neighborhood: |
Capitol Hill |
| Built By: |
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Year Built: |
1906 |
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| Significance |
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This house, dating from 1906, is an excellent example of a small cottage form that was very popular in Seattle around the turn of the 20th century. Many similar houses are found in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, so they were probably constructed by builders from pattern book designs. A builder would buy a lot, build a house, sell it, and move on to another piece of land. This highly intact house is on a tiny lot of less than 1500 square feet; even in the 1930s it was surrounded by apartment buildings. The builder and original owner are not known; the first identified owner was Jennie Ruddies, who bought it in 1920 and owned it at least through the 1930s.
This area, called Second Hill or Renton Hill, had been platted by Captain William Renton in the 1880s. He cleared the land, graded the streets and set out wooden sidewalks. Development flourished with the opening of the Madison Street cable car line about 1890. The spectacular views both east and west attracted many mansions and luxury apartments as well as more modest houses like this one.
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| Appearance |
| This side-gabled cottage has a large hipped-roof dormer that spans almost the entire width of the roof, to maximize upstairs space. Cladding is clapboard with shingles on the dormer and gable ends, corner boards, and a wood water table. The recessed porch is at the northwest corner. The first story is defined by a fluted column and pilasters with simple capitols at the building corners and at the sides of the porch. Adjoiing the porch is an unusually large window with a leaded upper section with a pattern of arches. A similar window is in the center of the dormer, with a small balustrade feature in front of it. Flanking it are two round windows with leaded glass and wide surorunds. The west elevation has a secondary entry and both side elevations have a window inset into the gable end, with a curving surround in th Shingle style. |
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