| Historic Name: |
Remsberg, C. E. House |
Common Name: |
Piccardo House |
| Style: |
Vernacular |
Neighborhood: |
Green Lake |
| Built By: |
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Year Built: |
1903 |
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| Significance |
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In the opinion of the survey, this property appears to meet the criteria of the Seattle Landmarks Preservation Ordinance. |
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The Remsberg House was built during the Fall-Winter 1902-1903. Charles Remsberg (1863-1945), born in Indiana, was the youngest of five children and the only son. Reared on a farm, Remsberg left home on his 20th birthday to further his education and spent two years teaching. He graduated from the University of Indiana shortly after the Great Seattle Fire of June 1889. Remsberg thought there would be business opportunities in Seattle so, a few weeks after the fire; he moved to Fremont and established a real estate business. During 1891 and 1892 he served as the Fremont Precinct Justice of the Peace (elected Nov 1890 by a 92 to 34 vote) and studied for the Washington State Bar exam which he passed in 1893. He specialized in Probate Court and presented two cases to the U.S. Supreme Court. In addition to his legal work, Remsberg and two associates spent two years compiling and organizing Washington State laws which resulted in the 1896 publication of Revised Statutes and Codes of the State of Washington. By 1905, he built two commercial buildings in Fremont. Remsberg established the Fremont State Bank and served as its President from 1904 to 1917.
In 1891, during all of this activity, Remsberg returned to Indiana and married Belle Farquhar (ca 1864-1954). In September 1902, after purchasing a five-acre tract of land near Green Lake, he constructed a large residence. The building permit listed Remsberg as the owner and builder. Remsberg may have used day labor to construct the house. By spring 1903, they took up residence in the house they called “The Farquharidge.” The Remsbergs; Charles, his wife, Belle, and daughters, Mabel (b. ca 1893) and Helen (b. ca 1896), lived there until 1917. In 1910 Remsberg employed two men to work on his five acre estate; 19 year old Edward Leary who worked outside in the barn and garden and Hasnam Singh, a 24 year old recent Indian immigrant who worked inside the house. The residence was about three blocks from the Green Lake streetcar line, which, in 1905, had a covered waiting area called the Remsberg Station.
Remsberg was also a leader in Seattle’s civic life. In 1907, he actively promoted the Lake Washington Ship Canal serving as secretary of the Lake Washington Canal Association. He was committed to municipal ownership of the city’s docks. In September 1911, King County approved the establishment of the Port of Seattle and Remsberg was elected as one of the first three Seattle Port Commissioners, a position he held for eight years. Remsberg was active in the Green Lake Improvement Club, at the time, one of about 16 neighborhood groups in the city. As the improvement club’s president, Remsberg successfully lobbied to lower Green Lake and create a park on the exposed land. Remsberg was a Far West Populist with a mistrust of monopolies and big business. With all of his own business activities, some publications described Remsberg as a ‘wheeler-dealer’. He also enjoyed music and beautiful gardens. In 1918, the Remsbergs moved to the Ravenna area.
Later occupants. Italian market gardeners Ernest and Louise Picardo moved into the house in 1924 and lived there for about 20 years. The dwelling is also called the Picardo House. At the end of the 1920s the Picardos sold off a portion of the five acre tract for residential lots. Carpenter William G. Hanson and wife Essie G. lived in the house from the late 1940s through the early 1960s.
In 1975 Historic Seattle conducted a survey of the Green Lake neighborhood and listed the Piccardo House as Significant to the City. The 1979 Seattle Historic Resources Survey inventoried the residence.
The residence appears to meet City of Seattle Landmark criteria due to it's distinctive architecture, the age of the structure (over 100 years old) and minimal alterations.
Sources (see 'Reference' below for complete citations):
"C. Remsberg, Attorney, Dies" Seattle Post-Intelligencer? April 19, 1945. Clipping files. Special Collections, University of Washington Library.
"C. E. Remsberg, Pioneer, Dies" Seattle Times May 18, 1945. Newspaper Index, Seattle Room, Seattle Public Library Downtown Branch.
"Death Takes E. Remsberg Mrs. Charles" Seattle Times? October 3, 1954. Newspaper Index, Seattle Room, Seattle Public Library Downtown Branch.
"Officers of the Seattle Improvement Clubs." Seattle Mail and Herald. December 19, 1903 p. 8
"The Remsberg & Dixon Bank (Inc.)" Seattle of To-Day (ca 1908) p 89.
"Charles E. Remsberg" Volume of Memoirs and Genealogy of Representative Citizens (1903) p 680-682
"Charles Edward Remsberg" Prosser, History of Puget Sound Country vol. 2 pp. 409-410
"Remsberg, Charles E." Wolfe, Sketches of Washingtonians p. 266
"Remsberg, Charles Edward." Allen, Who's Who in Washington State. (1927). p. 190.
Beardsley, Arthur S. "The Codes and Code Makers of Washington, 1889-1937" The Pacific Northwest Quarterly. Volume 30 #1 (January 1939) pp. 35-37.
Rosenberg, Arnold S. "The Rise of John Adams Kingsbury" Pacific Northwest Quarterly. Volume 63 #2 (April 1972) p. 61.
Burke, Padraic "Struggle for Public Ownership: The Early History of the Port of Seattle" Pacific Northwest Quarterly. Volume 68 #2 (April 1977) pp. 60-71.
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| Appearance |
| On September 18, 1902 the Seattle Building Department issued banker and lawyer C. E. Remsberg a building permit for a dwelling 32 x 40 feet (# 16306). The building department gave Remsberg 120 days to complete the house so the building was completed at the end of 1902 or early 1903. Two rear additions were added by Remsberg prior to 1919; a 14 foot one story and basement addition which included the kitchen was added to the north end of the original building and a 14 x 19 one story west addition attached to the rear addition. Laundry and sewing rooms were included in the west addition.
The front gable house on the south elevation has a large wrap around cobblestone porch with cobblestone posts. |
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| Status: |
Yes - Inventory |
| Classication: |
Building |
District Status: |
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| Cladding(s): |
Wood - Clapboard |
Foundation(s): |
Concrete - Poured, Stone |
| Roof Type(s): |
Gable |
Roof Material(s): |
Asphalt/Composition |
| Building Type: |
Domestic - Single Family |
Plan: |
Irregular |
| Structural System: |
Balloon Frame/Platform Frame |
No. of Stories: |
two & ½ |
| Unit Theme(s): |
Architecture/Landscape Architecture |
| Integrity |
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Changes to Plan: |
Moderate |
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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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City of Seattle. Seattle Inventory Field Form. 1979.
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Prosser, William F. A History of the Puget Sound Country. New York, The Lewis Publishing Company, 1903
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Wolfe, Wellington C. Sketches of Washingtonians. Seattle, W. C. Wolfe & Co., 1906.
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Volume of Memoirs and Genealogy of Representative Citizens of the City of Seattle. NYC, Lewis Publishing Co., 1903.
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Allen, Arthur H. (ed) Who's Who in Washington State. Seattle, Arthur H. Allen, Publisher, 1927.
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Sanborn Map Company. Insurance Maps of Seattle, Washington. (New York, Sanborn Map Company, 1916-1919) volumes 1, 3, 4, 5, 6.
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Sanborn Map Company. Insurance Maps of Seattle, Washington. (New York, Sanborn Map Company, 1949-1950 update) 11 volumes.
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Seattle Daily Bulletin
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Seattle of To-Day, Illustrated. Seattle: National Publishing Company, ca. 1908.
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Historic Seattle Preservation and Development Authority. “Greenlake: An Inventory of Buildings and Urban Design Resources.” Seattle: Historic Seattle, 1975.
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Pacific Northwest Quarterly
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