Historic Name: |
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Common Name: |
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Style: |
Colonial - Dutch Colonial |
Neighborhood: |
Mount Baker |
Built By: |
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Year Built: |
1922 |
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Significance |
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 1922 at a cost of $5000, this building was designed by Seattle architect, J. Lister Holmes. J. L. Hamilton was the contractor. Everett H. and Jessie Boyd purchased the building in June of 1922 and resided in the house through 1968. Mr. Boyd worked in finance.
J. Lister Holmes (1891-1986), a native of Seattle, received his degree in architecture from the University of Pennsylvania in 1913. In 1920, he returned to Seattle and worked for several local firms before establishing his own practice in 1922. His Beaux-Arts training enabled him to design a considerable number of eclectic and revival style homes for prominent citizens. Holmes designed a variety of houses in a range of architectural idioms, including English Tudor, Spanish Colonial, Norman Provincial and 18th Century French. Among Holmes designs are the Harry Lawton house in Seattle, the W.W. Fisher, Jr. house in Broadmoor, and Collinswood, now the Bloedel Reserve on Bainbridge Island. He also designed the Sigma Chi Fraternity, and he collaborated with Philadelphia architects Mellor & Meigs on the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity. During the Depression, Holmes began designing houses in the newly-developing international Style. In 1939, he served as chief architect for the Seattle Housing Authority's first public housing project, Yesler Terrace, in which he was able to use the simplicity and lack of ornamentation of the new style to advantage. After the war, he continued his work in the International Style, designing clinics, banks, schools and houses.
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 1922, this Dutch Colonial Revival style, single-family dwelling is oriented to Thirty-Seventh Avenue South on a flat site 5’ above street level. This 840 square foot, two-story house with a full basement features a nearly square plan, measuring approximately 28’ by 30’, with a small front stoop on the side facade. A poured concrete foundation supports the wood frame, clapboard-clad superstructure. Asphalt composition roofing covers the gambrel roof and extended side facade shed roof dormers. Modest closed eave and gable overhangs with eaves wrapping the first story define the roofline. Wood sash 6:1 double hung windows provide day lighting. A clipped gable roof with eave returns and an elliptical soffit carried on decoratively cut brackets shelters the stoop. A brick gable end chimney services the building. The entry detailing sets this building apart within the neighborhood. |
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Status: |
Yes - Inventory |
Classication: |
Building |
District Status: |
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Cladding(s): |
Wood - Clapboard |
Foundation(s): |
Unknown |
Roof Type(s): |
Gambrel |
Roof Material(s): |
Asphalt/Composition |
Building Type: |
Domestic - Single Family |
Plan: |
Rectangular |
Structural System: |
Balloon Frame/Platform Frame |
No. of Stories: |
two |
Unit Theme(s): |
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Integrity |
Changes to Plan: |
Intact |
Changes to Original Cladding: |
Intact |
Changes to Windows: |
Intact |
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Major Bibliographic References |
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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Shaping Seattle Architecture: A Historical Guide to the Architects. Jeffrey Karl Ochsner, ed. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1994.
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