| Historic Name: |
Birkeland-Gibbons House |
Common Name: |
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| Style: |
Modern, Tudor |
Neighborhood: |
Queen Anne |
| Built By: |
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Year Built: |
1937 |
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| Significance |
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In the opinion of the survey, this property appears to meet the criteria of the National Register of Historic Places. |
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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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In the opinion of the survey, this property is located in a potential historic districe (National and/or local). |
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This house, designed by Albert Geiser, dates from 1937, and shows evidence of the transition from highly detailed earlier Revival styles to cleaner, more modern looks. The red brick, the leaded windows, the entry hood and the arched garage entry all refer to Tudor precedents. However, the lack of eaves and the prominent garage location are modern touches. The house is a large one, and the lower level has been a separate dwelling unit since 1938. It was used as housekeeping rooms between 1943 and 1945, a common occurrence during the wartime housing shortage.
The house was designed for Gunder and Olga Birkeland. He emigrated to Poulsbo from Norway in 1905, and founded the Birkeland Brothers Logging Company. He later turned to real estate, developing much of downtown Bremerton. In 1930 he moved to Seattle and built several houses on Queen Anne, including that nearby at 1424 Bigelow Avenue North (1936). Birkeland died in 1976 at the age of ninety. This house appears to have been constructed by another contractor named S. Hitchcock. The Birkelands lived here into the 1940s, when the house was purchased by Charles A. Gibbons, president of the Atlas Equipment Company, and his wife Ruth. They remained until the 1970s.
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| Appearance |
| The house is clad with red brick and has a hipped roof with no eaves. A modern touch, typical of the transitional period of the 1930s, the two-car garage projects seven feet from the south side of the main façade (west); it has a slightly arched opening and door. The entry is in the center of the facade, near the point where the garage and house meet; the stoop is sheltered by a curved hood. To the north is a pair of 8-light leaded casement windows, a small accent windows and a secondary entry with a hipped hood. The second floor has three double hung windows with eight-over-eight leaded glass; these windows break into the scalloped frieze below the eave line. The house is on the side of a hill, with a third story below on the hillside. Windows on the northeast and east, toward the view, appear to be plain casements. |
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