| Historic Name: |
Schmechel, Henry, Duplex |
Common Name: |
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| Style: |
Arts & Crafts - Craftsman |
Neighborhood: |
Capitol Hill |
| Built By: |
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Year Built: |
1909 |
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| Significance |
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This is a good example of a Foursquare, which appears to have been built originally as a duplex in 1909. By 1937 it was listed as a triplex, with two units on the main floors (denoted by the two front doors), and a smaller unit in the basement (perhaps added during the Depression years). It was built in 1909 by Henry Schmechel, a builder, who apparently owned it into the 1950s, living in one unit at some times, and renting both units at other times. In 1926 he built and lived in the house next door at 1825 Federal Avenue E.
Capitol Hill has the city’s greatest concentration of American Foursquare houses—often called the Classic Box or Seattle Box, because of its local popularity. They were built primarily between 1905 and 1910. Most of these houses were not designed by an architect, but were built by local builders from patterns purchased from magazines. Most have a wide front porch with heavy posts or columns and a hip roof, often with dormers. There are typically eight main rooms on two floors--living room, hall, dining room and kitchen downstairs and three bedrooms and a bath upstairs. Two reasons for their popularity were that they provided a large amount of space for reasonable cost, and that they could be personalized depending on an owners taste and budget. This neighborhood has numerous variations, from simple unornamented versions to elaborately detailed ones, and a number divided into duplexes like this one.
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| Appearance |
| This is a typical Foursquare form, with a hipped roof with extended rafter tails and hipped dormers on the front and side elevations. Cladding is clapboard; originaly the upper story had wood shingle cladding. A wide wood belt course runs between the two stories, and a wood water table is above the concrete foundation. The projecting entry porch covers the north half of the front (east) façade; it has a flat roof with an open deck above, supported by two square wood columns; the railing has plain square balusters. A pair of French doors with a wide wood surround open onto the porch. The primary windows have leaded glass in the upper sections. South of the porch on the first floor is a three-sided bay with a hipped roof and three large windows. A trio of windows is above on the second floor. The south elevation has a two story, rather shallow three-sided bay with one-over-one windows. |
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