| Historic Name: |
Don Roberts Apartments |
Common Name: |
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| Style: |
Arts & Crafts - Prairie Style, Italian - Italian Renaissance, Beaux Arts - American Renaissance |
Neighborhood: |
Wallingford |
| Built By: |
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Year Built: |
1925 |
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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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This five-unit apartment building was erected in 1925. It was built by J. S. Waller, who gave his address as 5328 10 N. E., for owner Donald W. Roberts, whose address is listed on the permit application as 4807 Midvale Avenue North. Roberts wrecked an existing garage and built a new garage on the property under a separate permit that same year. This structure appears no longer to be extant. The designer of the apartment building is not recorded on the permit.
In 1930, a permit was issued for repairs “per Fire Marshal’s letter.” This work was completed by the J. H. Wilson Company, a building contractor located at 315 2nd Avenue W. (near what is now Myrtle Edwards Park). The owner listed on the permit was Lindjord & Peterson, Inc., a firm specializing in real estate management and insurance with offices at 219 Lloyd Building (603 Stewart Street).
Nicholas Schultheis appears to have acquired the property in 1937. It came into the possession of Dan W. Nelson for a few months in early 1955, and then in April of that year, Chloris I. Waskey acquired the property. Several minor upgrades and repairs to the apartment building were undertaken for Waskey in 1970 and 1975-76.
When Waskey purchased the property, the apartment building was situated on the western leg of an “L” shaped parcel that included a leg extending to the south and fronting on N. 36th Street. A house now addressed as 1808 N. 36th Street occupied the southern leg. In 1984, Waskey decided to subdivide the property. This was probably done in order to make it possible to sell the apartment building and house separately. Permits were issued that year for minor alterations and variances that would enable Waskey to short plat the property. When the short plat process was completed, the apartment building was located on the larger piece of the property, now called Parcel A, and the house on the smaller southern leg, now known as Parcel B.
The current owner of the apartment building, Patricia Allen, bought Parcel A from Waskey in 1985 for $160,000. Waskey later sold Parcel B, including the house, to Eric Laguardia in 1986.
This structure is significant because of the comparatively rich design of its essentially vernacular façade. Other multi-family buildings of this size and degree of architectural interest may be found in Wallingford, but most have suffered a substantial loss of integrity or are in very poor repair. Although larger apartment buildings in the neighborhood have aged as gracefully as this building, they are generally of less architectural interest
This particular structure had obviously been suffering from some neglect when it was photographed by the Assessor in 1937, although it had been built only 12 years earlier. The current owner appears to have taken much more of an interest in maintaining the structure.
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| Appearance |
| This is a two-story, light frame, five-unit apartment building with brick veneer on a concrete foundation over a full basement. Although essentially a vernacular box, the classical symmetry of the street façade, the formality of the centered entry, and the design of the original paneled railing of the porch parapet (now replaced with a metal railing) are suggestive of colonial revival design. The Italianate flavor of the applied cornice, the grand entry stair, the groups of three slender Tuscan columns at the two outside corners of the entry porch, and the change of character between the grouped windows of the main floor and the smaller independent double-hung and divided casement windows of the upper level give the structure an Italian renaissance feel. The designer’s attention to the massing of brick elements either side of the entry stair, and the use of large capped brick pedestals at the base of the grouped partial height columns supporting the entry porch roof suggest a familiarity with craftsman and prairie school patterns. The door and front window of the basement level apartment, located to the south of the entry, are hidden behind a recently added wood fence.
The side elevations of the structure are much simpler. At the first and second floor levels of both the north and south elevations, a large double hung window is located near the front (west) end of the elevation and a smaller double-hung unit is situated near the back (east) end. At the south wall, two large double-hung windows near the front of the building lights the basement level apartment. A small window is situated at the east end of the basement wall under the almost identical back end windows at the two floors above. A small square window is located in the middle of the basement level façade. At the north side, a large, single double-hung window, partially hidden in a light well, illuminates the front end of the basement. Two smaller rectangular windows are placed high in the basement wall to the east.
The wood railing that once surmounted the entry porch roof has been replaced with a simpler metal railing unsympathetic to the character of the building’s original design. Fencing has recently been added to screen the lower level apartment. The building has recently been repainted (earth tones have replaced white at many of the wood trim surfaces). No other significant modifications are apparent. |
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