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Summary for 3609 38th AVE / Parcel ID 5700003105 / Inv #

Historic Name: Common Name:
Style: Tudor, Tudor - Cottage Neighborhood: Mount Baker
Built By: Year Built: 1925
 
Significance
Built in 1925, this residence was occupied by Henry I. Trowbridge and M. C. Hale. Mrs. Hale ran a dancing school in the house. James E. Flaherty lived in the building by 1943 through 1957. By 1959 through 1965, Robert M. Cour occupied the building. 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.
 
Appearance
Built in 1925, this compact, Tudor Revival style, single-family cottage is oriented to Thirty-Eighth Avenue South on a flat site 4’ above street level. This 1226 square foot, one-and-a-half story house with a full basement features a rectangular plan, measuring approximately 39’ by 28’, with a recessed front stoop. A poured concrete foundation supports the wood frame, stucco-clad superstructure. Asphalt composition roofing covers the steeply pitched cross gable roof and gable roof dormer. Modest eave and gable overhangs with exposed rafters and prominent bargeboards define the roofline. Wood sash multiple-lite windows provide day lighting. A Palladian window highlights the gable end. A peaked opening frames the recessed stoop. Two flights of stairs lead from the sidewalk to this entrance. The extended slope of the front facing gable shelters this entrance. A brick chimney services the building. The stucco, Palladian window, and entrance detailing set this building apart from others in the neighborhood.

Detail for 3609 38th AVE / Parcel ID 5700003105 / Inv #

Status: Yes - Inventory
Classication: Building District Status:
Cladding(s): Stucco Foundation(s): Unknown
Roof Type(s): Gable Roof Material(s): Asphalt/Composition
Building Type: Domestic - Single Family Plan: Rectangular
Structural System: Balloon Frame/Platform Frame No. of Stories: one & ½
Unit Theme(s):
Integrity
Changes to Plan: Intact
Changes to Original Cladding: Intact
Changes to Windows: Intact
Major Bibliographic References
City of Seattle DCLU Microfilm Records.
King County Property Record Card (c. 1938-1972), Washington State Archives.
Polk's Seattle Directories, 1890-1996.
City of Seattle. Survey of City-Owned Historic Resources. Prepared by Cathy Wickwire, Seattle, 2001. Forms for Ravenna Park structures.
Historic Seattle Preservation and Development Authority. "Mount Baker: An Inventory of Buildings and Urban Design Resources."
Mount Baker Community Club. Flowers We All Love Best in Mount Baker Park, (reprint of 1915 ed.)
Tobin, Caroline. (2004) "Mount Baker Historic Context Statement."

Photo collection for 3609 38th AVE / Parcel ID 5700003105 / Inv #


Photo taken Nov 05, 2003

Photo taken
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