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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 Howard/Gilbert House was constructed about 1904. In 1901 New York native Charles Howard (b. ca 1876) arrived in Seattle. He got a job as a traveling salesman. In 1902, apparently tired of going from town to town by train and steamboat, Charles Howard established the Washington Boom Works, a manufacturer of brooms. The following year he married Alice Howard (b. ca 1876) and had earned enough money to build a house. In early 1904, land developer C. L. Bowman sold a tract of his subdivision located in Brighton Beach to Howard. By the end of the year the house was completed and the Howards moved in. The next year Howard decided to diversify his manufacturing plant and started producing woodenware. In 1906 the couple sold the house to the Gilberts and moved to Queen Anne.
Fred Gilbert (b. ca 1867), born and raised in Illinois, married Augusta, another Illinois native, and started a family. Fred, Augusta, and daughter Geraldine (b. ca 1898) moved to Seattle in 1902 and the Puget Sound National Bank, the city's largest, soon hired Gilbert as a bookkeeper. The Gilberts moved into the house at about the time their baby boy Goodson was born. In 1911 they moved out of town.
By the late 1920s Arne and Esther Nielsen lived in the house. At the beginning of World War II, Charles and Winifred Rutledge resided there. Charles worked as an aero engineer.
The Howard/Gilbert House appears to meet City of Seattle Landmark criteria due to the age of the structure (over 100 years old) and minimal alterations.
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