| Historic Name: |
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Common Name: |
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| Style: |
Arts & Crafts - Craftsman, Colonial - Colonial Revival |
Neighborhood: |
Mount Baker |
| Built By: |
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Year Built: |
1921 |
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| Significance |
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Built 1921, this building was designed by Seattle architect, Edward L. Merritt. The building underwent a remodel a short four years later in 1925. John Hancock lived in the building, followed by Ronald C. Staight by 1938. Edwin T. Turner purchased the building in December of 1941 and remained through 1968.
Architect Edward L. Merritt (1881-?) practiced in Seattle from 1909 until 1938. He was associated with Jud Yoho, owner of the Craftsman Bungalow Company and publisher of Bungalow Magazine (ca. 1909-18). In 1917, Merritt took over the Craftsman Bungalow Company with Yoho as an associate. Yoho & Merritt published their last plan book of Craftsman bungalows in 1920 and published a plan book on Colonial homes in 1921. Yoho & Merritt designed Craftsman style bungalows in Wallingford, Green Lake, the University District, and the Northgate area.
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 1921, this modest, subtly Arts & Crafts-influenced, Colonial Revival style, single-family cottage stands on a rectangular corner lot. The building is oriented to Thirty-Eighth Avenue South on a sloping site 4’ above street level. This 1404 square foot, one-and-a-half story house with a full basement features a rectangular plan, measuring approximately 28’ by 45’, with a 10’ by 5’ front stoop. A poured concrete foundation supports the wood frame, concrete/asbestos shingle-clad superstructure. Asphalt composition roofing covers the cross gable roof. Modest, open eave and gable overhangs with exposed rafters, prominent bargeboards and decorative brackets under the eaves define the roofline. Wood windows with multiple-lite upper sash provide day lighting. A Palladian window highlights the front gable end. A close railing wraps the front stoop with three slender posts on each outer corner supporting the gable stoop roof. A brick chimney services the building. The roofline and basic massing are similar to 3718 Thirty-Eighth Avenue South. |
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| Status: |
Yes - Inventory |
| Classication: |
Building |
District Status: |
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| Cladding(s): |
Shingle - Concrete/Asbestos |
Foundation(s): |
Unknown |
| Roof Type(s): |
Gable |
Roof Material(s): |
Asphalt/Composition |
| Building Type: |
Domestic - Single Family |
Plan: |
Rectangular |
| Structural System: |
Balloon Frame/Platform Frame |
No. of Stories: |
one & ½ |
| Unit Theme(s): |
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| Integrity |
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Changes to Windows: |
Intact |
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Changes to Original Cladding: |
Moderate |
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Changes to Plan: |
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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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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Ore, Janet and Jud Yoho. (1997). “The Bungalow Craftsman and the Development of Seattle Suburbs,” in Shaping Communities and Perspectives in Vernacular Architecture. Ed. by Hudgins & Crowley. Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee Press.
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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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