| Historic Name: |
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Common Name: |
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| Style: |
Arts & Crafts - Craftsman, Colonial |
Neighborhood: |
Wallingford |
| Built By: |
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Year Built: |
1923 |
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| Significance |
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This house was built in 1923 by day laborers working at the direction of the property owner, George E. Boswell, who listed his address as 5421 Meridian Avenue N. on the permit application. The designer of the structure is unknown.
The attic was apparently not originally intended for occupation, although it appears to have been illuminated by small windows in each side gable from a date early in the life of the structure. The Assessor’s record suggests that the attic level was not made suitable for occupation until after 1937.
The structure is significant because it is an intact and well-maintained specimen of post World War I housing. It combines colonial detailing with bungalow massing and exemplifies the eclectic approach to styling employed by builders and designers in the midst of Seattle’s second north end construction boom.
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| Appearance |
| This building is a clapboard and shingle clad frame residence on a concrete foundation over a full basement. Although it is presently a 1-1/2 story structure, it should be noted that the upper half-floor was not finished for occupation until many years after the structure was originally built according to the permit and the Assessor’s record.
The moderate slope of the side gabled roof, the relatively broad overhangs, the siding pattern (shingles in the gables, clapboards at the body of the house), the ganged windows, and the pattern of the window muntins are all suggestive of bungalow massing and styling. However, the enclosed soffits, the eave fascias, the cornice returns, the Tuscan columns supporting the porch roof, the wide, sidelighted entry door and the symmetry of the entry façade are all elements associated with the colonial style.
Six concrete steps rise at the middle of the north elevation to the concrete entry porch. The entry door and the gabled porch roof are also centered in the elevation and share the axis of the steps. The concrete porch itself is not centered and instead extends along the north façade to the east of the entry and steps down at the northeast corner of the house to provide access to the porch from the driveway in the eastern side yard. This porch extension is echoed in the remains of a trellis that once extended over the façade to the east of the entry.
Cornice returns make the street-facing gable of the porch roof into an entry pediment. The two outside corners of the porch cover are supported by full height Tuscan columns. Although apparently adequate for structural support, the two columns seem undersized when compared with the visual mass of the gable above. A trim band at the base of the porch cover functions as an entablature for the columns. Where the porch cover is attached to the body of the house, this trim band is extended to wrap the entire structure. At the front and back elevations, it stretches just below the eaves to form a combination frieze and head casing for main level doors and windows. At the ends of the house, it continuous to function as a head casing but also acts as a trim band and drip mould separating the gable shingles from the main level clapboard cladding.
The entry door is centered in the north elevation and is somewhat wider than is typical for houses of this size. The screen door is unusual and probably not original; its asymmetrically organized pattern of concentric curves suggests that it was custom designed and built by an artisan. Side lights, each consisting of ten lights (5 x 2) stand to either side of the entry doorway.
The windows facing the street are arranged in two groups. One group is centered in the portion of the wall to the east on the entry, the other to the west. The central unit of each group is a double-hung window consisting of an upper sash divided into five tall rectangular lights and a larger but undivided lower sash. It is flanked with narrower but similarly configured units with three lights in the upper sash.
The arrangement of openings at the side elevations is less regular. The chimney at the northernmost quarter point of the east wall is flanked by double-hung windows (one to each side) that are similar in size and configuration to the flanking units at the north elevation. These two windows, as well as a group of three units approximately centered in the east façade, appear to hang from the horizontal trim band wrapping the end of the building. The group of three windows consists of a wide center unit with five lights in the upper sash and two narrower flanking units, each with two lights in the upper sash. A gable-roofed bay extends from the building at the southernmost quarter of the elevation; a single double-hung window is centered in the bay and appears to be “hung” from the horizontal trim band that wraps the bay (an extension of that wrapping the house).
At the west wall, individual double-hung windows, similar in configuration to the flanking units at the north elevation but with four rather than three lights in the upper sash, are situated near each end of the elevation. Two much smaller but similarly configured double-hung units are placed a few feet apart just to the south of the façade’s central axis. All are hung from the horizontal trim band as at the east elevation.
An aluminum slider type window is centered in the gable at each end of the house. The details of the casing suggest that these windows openings are not original.
The south elevation of the structure cannot be observed from the street.
The house shares a garage structure with the house immediately to the east. The detached garage stands at the back (south end) of the property and appears to straddle the property line between the two houses. It is not known when this building was erected.
The timber trellis that once extended over the concrete deck east of the entry at the north elevation appears to have been partially disassembled. Aluminum slider type windows have been installed in the end gables. A chimney insert appears to have been added to the brick chimney at the east elevation of the building. No other significant modifications to the structure are apparent. |
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