Significance |
|
Built in 1923, this building was owned by the Mount Baker Building Company. William W. Reed purchased the property in August of 1923. Mr. Reed worked in real estate. By 1938, Henry I. Trowbridge resided in the building, followed by Harold L. Kilham by 1940 through 1951, and then Zane E. Miller by 1953. By 1955, the building was listed as vacant. John LaCava lived in the building by 1957. Harry E. Ray, Junior bought the building in January of 1959 for $12,250 and remained through 1965. In August of 1966, Freddie A. Tapuro purchased the building for $14,000 and remained through 1968.
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 Seattleās 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.
|
|