| Historic Name: |
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Common Name: |
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| Style: |
Arts & Crafts, Colonial - Colonial Revival |
Neighborhood: |
Mount Baker |
| Built By: |
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Year Built: |
1924 |
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| Significance |
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Built in 1924, this building was constructed after George H. Karn purchased the property in March of 1921. Mr. Karn worked as a piano tuner. He lived in the building through 1965. By 1968, Carla Ulvich lived in the house.
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 1924, this slightly Arts & Crafts-influenced, Colonial Revival style, single-family cottage stands on a rectangular lot. The building is oriented to Thirty-Eighth Avenue South on a flat site 3’ above street level. This 884 square foot, single-story house with a full basement features a rectangular plan, measuring approximately 34’ by 20’, with a small front stoop. A poured concrete foundation supports the wood frame, clapboard-clad superstructure. Asphalt composition roofing covers the clipped cross gable roof. Modest, closed eave and gable overhangs with cornice returns define the roofline. Wood sash multiple-lite windows provide day lighting. A short flight of steps leads to the front entrance. Slender posts support the gable roof. An elliptical arched entry with decorative keystone leads to the main entrance. An internal brick chimney services the building. |
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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): |
Gable - Clipped |
Roof Material(s): |
Asphalt/Composition |
| Building Type: |
Domestic - Single Family |
Plan: |
Rectangular |
| Structural System: |
Balloon Frame/Platform Frame |
No. of Stories: |
one |
| Unit Theme(s): |
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| Integrity |
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Changes to Windows: |
Intact |
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Changes to Plan: |
Intact |
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Changes to Original Cladding: |
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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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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