Seattle Historical Sites

Summary for 417 Harvard AVE / Parcel ID 6850700445 / Inv #

Historic Name: 417 Harvard Common Name: 417 Harvard Style: Tudor Neighborhood: Capitol Hill Built By: Year Built: 1929   Significance In the opinion of the survey, this property appears to meet the criteria of the National Register of Historic Places. In the opinion of the survey, this property appears to meet the criteria of the Seattle Landmarks Preservation Ordinance. Built in 1929, this is one of three buildings developed by the Borchert Company, the Portland firm owned by Mark Borchert, Frederick Anhalt's friend and brother-in-law. It has 15 apartments, averaging nearly 1,000 square feet, arranged around a spacious courtyard. Anhalt was Seattle's most prominent apartment developer, bringing a distinctive sense of style and promoting high-quality apartments as an alternative to single-family homes. His buildings are the best known of the city's numerous pre-war multifamily buildings, and set the standard for such projects. Anhalt combined the development, design, construction, landscaping, marketing and management functions in one firm. He moved to Seattle about 1924 after working in various trades in the Midwest, and in 1924 formed the Western Building & Leasing Company with partner Jerome B. Hardcastle, Jr. The company quickly began to centralize design and construction with the firm, and in 1928 Anhalt bought Hardcastle's interest. The firm built bungalow courts, apartment courts and commercial buildings on Capitol Hill, Queen Anne, West Seattle, Beacon Hill and Ballard, usually drawing from English Tudor or Mediterranean Revival precedents. In late 1928, the firm (now known as the Anhalt Company) built five larger-scale luxury apartment buildings on Capitol Hill, based on Medieval English and Norman French prototypes. Although the apartment business failed during the depression, Anhalt continued to building single-family homes until 1942, when he turned to his nursery business. Edwin E. Dofsen, the designer, had been a draftsman for Seattle architects Arthur Loveless and William J. Bain before joining Anhalt in 1927. He designed fourteen of Anhalt's apartment buildings, as well as projects for other developers. He later went on to design more than forty residences in the Seattle area. His father, John Dofsen, was Anhalt's primary landscape gardener, and designed courtyards for many of the buildings.   Appearance This Tudor-inspired building is frame construction, clad with dark red brick with clinker brick accents and wood shake roofing. It is U-shaped in plan with a courtyard measuring approximately 50 by 50 feet. The roofline is complex, with hipped roofs on the main volumes and small hipped dormers gabl son the main roofs and numerous small hipped dormers set into the eaves. The northeast corner on the street elevation has a large hanging bay with a gabled roof and half timbered detailing. A similar half-timbered gable is in the southwest interior corner of the courtyard. The northwest and southeast corners each have a square pyramidal turret, shorter than the ridgeline of the roof. Most windows throughout are six-light leaded glass casement sash, arranged in pairs. Main windows on the courtyard are in groups of three or four, some sheltered with shed roofs clad with shakes. Also on the courtyard are arched recessed entries, most leading to two units. The apartments also have rear entries on the sides and rear of the building.

Detail for 417 Harvard AVE / Parcel ID 6850700445 / Inv #

Status: Yes - Inventory Classication: Building District Status: Cladding(s): Brick Foundation(s): Concrete - Poured Roof Type(s): Gable Roof Material(s): Wood - Shake Building Type: Domestic - Multiple Family Plan: U-Shape Structural System: Balloon Frame/Platform Frame No. of Stories: two Unit Theme(s): Architecture/Landscape Architecture Integrity Changes to Plan: Intact Changes to Windows: Intact Changes to Original Cladding: Intact Major Bibliographic References Polk's Seattle Directories, 1890-1996. Shaping Seattle Architecture: A Historical Guide to the Architects. Jeffrey Karl Ochsner, ed. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1994. King County Tax Assessor Records, ca. 1932-1972. City of Seattle, Department of Planning and Development, Microfilm Records. Kreisman, Lawrence. Apartments by Anhalt. Seattle: Kreisman Exhibit Design, 1978.

Photo collection for 417 Harvard AVE / Parcel ID 6850700445 / Inv #

Photo taken Apr 27, 2006 Photo taken Apr 27, 2006