Historic Name: |
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Common Name: |
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Style: |
Colonial - Colonial Revival |
Neighborhood: |
Mount Baker |
Built By: |
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Year Built: |
1913 |
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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 1913 at a cost of $6,000, this building was designed for G. A. Reynolds by Seattle architect U Grant Fay (Fay Russell & Babcock). William A. and Marjorie W. Thies purchased the building in June of 1933. Mr. Thies worked as a sales foreman for Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company. By 1958, Buckie A. Taft lived in the building. A sun deck was added in 1960.
Architect U. Grant Fay practiced architecture in Seattle from about 1909 to 1917. Initially he was in the partnership of Fay, Russell & Babcock, and later he had his own office in the Central Building downtown. Fay Russell & Babcock designed the Masonic Temple for the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition in 1909. Mr. Fay designed a variety of buildings in Seattle, including residences in Mount Baker, the University District and Capitol Hill, and churches, such as the First Baptist Church on Capitol Hill and University Presbyterian Church.
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 1913, this Colonial Revival style, single-family dwelling stands on a rectangular corner lot. The building is oriented to Thirty-Fourth Avenue South on a flat site at street level. This 1500 square foot, two-story house with a full daylight basement features a rectangular plan, measuring approximately 30’ by 42’, with a 10’ by 24’ sunroom off the backside. A poured concrete foundation supports the wood frame, clapboard-clad superstructure. Asphalt composition roofing covers the side gable roof. Low gable end parapets with decorative ends accent the gable ends. A dentiled entablature wraps beneath the eaves. Wood sash 8:1 and 4:1 double-hung windows provide day lighting. Windows also retain their original working shutters. A double-ogee curved roof carried on brackets shelters the front entrance. Sidelights flank the main doorway. Two internal brick chimneys service the building. This building is unique within the area due to the gable end parapets, entrance detailing, and most significantly, likely some of the only intact working original shutters in the neighborhood. |
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Status: |
Yes - Inventory |
Classication: |
Building |
District Status: |
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Cladding(s): |
Wood - Clapboard |
Foundation(s): |
Concrete - Poured |
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 Windows: |
Intact |
Changes to Original Cladding: |
Intact |
Changes to Plan: |
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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Architects Reference Files, Special Collections and Preservation Division, University of Washington Libraries.
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Architects file cards, Seattle Department of Neighborhood, Historic Preservation Program.
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Dietz, Duane, “Architects and Landscape Architects of Seattle, 1876 to 1959 and Beyond,” unpublished paper. University of Washington Libraries, July 1993.
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