| Historic Name: |
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Common Name: |
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| Style: |
American Foursquare - Craftsman, Arts & Crafts - Craftsman |
Neighborhood: |
Wallingford |
| Built By: |
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Year Built: |
1912 |
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| Significance |
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This house was erected 1911-12. It was designed and built by the owner, John A. Burkland, a carpenter who listed his address on the permit application as 4703 Thackeray. (According to Polk’s Seattle Directory, Burkland lived at 4702 Thackeray in 1910 and 1911, and at 4710 Thackeray in 1912.)
The Frederick Boyd Company (2041 Westlake Avenue) erected a “portable garage” at the property in 1916 for owner T. E. Conner. Conner may have been an absentee landlord or may have worked for the Frederick Boyd Company; his address is never listed as 4711 Thackeray in city directories, and when he does appear in the directories (as Thomas Conner), he is described as a laborer. It is not known if the structure erected in 1916 is the garage currently situated at the southwest corner of the site.
Halvor O. Ullern owned the property beginning in 1934. He may have shared the house with others; Jerry R. Horr is listed with Ullern as a resident in 1938.
In 1995-96, a deck was added to the structure, the rear porch was enclosed, and alterations were made to the interior. This work was completed by owner Jeffrey Brodmerkel, who purchased the house from J. Michael and Richard U. Starr in 1995. In 1996, the original garage was destroyed and a new garage was built on the old foundation. Steve Schellings remodeled the interior again and added French doors in April 2000. Although Schelling is listed as the owner of the property on the permit, the Assessor’s records indicate that Rebecca K. Geisler was the actual owner; she had purchased the property from Brodmerkel 1996. Geisler sold the house to the current owners in May 2000.
This structure is significant because the portion visible from the street possesses a high degree of integrity and because the house is an excellent example of two story craftsman design from the middle years of Seattle’s first north end building boom. The warp-around hip roof at the front porch, and the stucco cladding above windowsill height at the upper floor level are interesting architectural features that betray the influence of prairie school work on the design, while he boxy shape of the structure and the organization of the fenestration in the front elevation are somewhat reminiscent of late Queen Anne foursquare structures.
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| Appearance |
| This is a two story, clapboard and stucco clad frame residence on a concrete foundation over a full basement. The moderate slope of the roof, the wide bargeboards supported by triangular knee braces, the unenclosed undersides of the overhangs, the exposed rafter tails, and the extensive use of double-hung windows typically comprised of a divided upper sash over an undivided lower sash are all elements commonly associated with craftsman bungalow design. The warp-around hip roof at the front porch, and the horizontal emphasis in the facades generated by the stucco cladding above windowsill height at the upper floor level are features more often associated with the prairie style, and the box like shape, porch detailing, and window organization at the front of the building recall late Queen Anne foursquare work.
The front porch is situated in a notch at the front (east) end of the house. Its presence is emphasized by the hipped roof that stretches across the front and around the southeast and northeast corners of the structure. Three built-up piers extend from porch deck level to cased beams at the underside of the upper floor structure to support the portion of the house above the notch. A heavy wood craftsman type railing stretches between the piers at the front of the porch, and between the house and the piers at the south and north ends of the porch. An entry door with a six-pane view window is located near the north end of the elevation, where it is flanked by partial height sidelights. Near the middle of the wall to the south of the entry is a set of three double hung windows, a wide unit flanked by two narrower units. All feature a small upper sash over a larger undivided lower sash.
A horizontal trim band stretches across the front façade a foot or two above the top of the hipped porch roof, separating the stucco cladding of the upper level from the clapboard siding at the body of the house below and connecting the sills of the two outboard upper floor windows. This band continues around the rest of the house and connects the sills of almost all the upper floor windows. The two outboard units at the front of the house are large double-hung windows. At least until the late 1930s, each of these windows consisted of a divided upper sash over a larger undivided lower sash. At some point since then, the upper sash were replaced with undivided sash of the same size. Two smaller casement units, each divided into rectangular panes arranged in a 4 x 3 pattern, are symmetrically placed either side of the centerline of the façade, their heads aligned with the large outboard windows and their sills visually connected by a bracket-supported shelf that stretches below them. An attic window, divided into fifteen lights organized in a 3 x 5 array, is centered in the gable above.
The chimney is located at the south elevation nearer the east end of the house. Between the porch notch and the chimney is a fixed window featuring twelve panes organized in a 4 x 3 pattern. West of the chimney, closer to the back end of the house, is a shed roofed bay. Three double-hung windows, a wide central unit flanked by two narrower units, are ganged and centered in the south face of the bay. The base of the bay is marked by an extension of the water table that wraps the house at about porch deck level. At the upper level, a double-hung window similar to the outboard units at the front of the house is located near the eastern end of the façade. Two similar windows are paired in the wall above the first floor bay. A smaller window is located between the paired double-hung units and the southwest corner of the house.
At the upper level of the north elevation, a large double-hung unit is located at each end of the façade. A smaller double-hung unit floats in the stucco field just east of the westernmost window. Near the middle of the elevation, a door is situated at the half level between the basement and the first floor. A double-hung window located directly over the door interrupts the horizontal trim band between the stucco and the bevel siding, apparently lighting a stair landing between the first and second floors. A hip-roofed bay serving the first floor appears to have been added at the northwest corner of the structure. Two small casements, paired and situated just to the east of this bay, were probably added about the same time.
The back (west) end of the house cannot be observed from the street
The brick retaining wall at the sidewalk is a relatively recent addition to the site. The entry stair appears to have been altered. Some remodeling, including the addition of a small bay, appears to have been completed at the northwest corner of the structure. No other significant modifications are apparent. |
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| Status: |
Yes - Inventory |
| Classication: |
Building |
District Status: |
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| Cladding(s): |
Stucco, Wood, Wood - Clapboard |
Foundation(s): |
Concrete - Poured |
| Roof Type(s): |
Gable, Hip, Shed |
Roof Material(s): |
Asphalt/Composition-Shingle |
| Building Type: |
Domestic - Single Family |
Plan: |
Rectangular |
| Structural System: |
Balloon Frame/Platform Frame |
No. of Stories: |
two |
| Unit Theme(s): |
Architecture/Landscape Architecture, Community Planning/Development |
| Integrity |
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Changes to Plan: |
Slight |
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Changes to Original Cladding: |
Intact |
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Changes to Windows: |
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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