| Historic Name: |
Martel Apartments |
Common Name: |
Martel Apartments |
| Style: |
American Foursquare |
Neighborhood: |
Capitol Hill |
| Built By: |
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Year Built: |
1906 |
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| Significance |
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This small apartment house is a good example of the common American Foursquare form being used as an apartment building. It is unclear whether this was constructed as a single family or multifamily building. Either option is possible. This vicinity, only a block from the 15th Avenue car line, developed early in the century with both large homes and apartment buildings. Pattern book designs were available for Foursquare apartments as well as single family homes.
The building is a good case study in the development of living accommodations during the first half of the century. By 1937, the building accommodated six apartments of various sizes—two 2-room, two 3 room and two 4-room units. It also had two sleeping rooms, without individual baths or cooking facilities. This was later expand to nine units, evidently by providing cooking facilities for three units; however, the nine units still had a total of seven bathrooms, with a wash basin in each unit. Today, it has only five units, averaging 653 square feet. Even though it was on a major car line, the building had a garage for each full unit, indicating that it catered to middle-class or higher tenants.
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| Appearance |
| This large Classic Box or Foursquare has the typical hipped-roof form with a slightly flared roof with deep bracketed eaves and hipped dormers on the front and south. The front dormer contains a rather unusual open balcony. Cladding is clapboard on the front, with asbestos shingles on the sides, with wide belt courses below the first floor windows and below the eaves. Corinthian pilasters mark the corners. The projecting flat-roofed porch covers the entire width of the west side. The entry is recessed in the center, with the opening flanked by two pairs of round columns. The door and surround are original, with beveled glass sidelights. The two sections flanking this recessed center section are enclosed with nine-light sash. Above the entry is three-sided bay with four one-over-one windows; in front of this is an open porch with a turned balustrade. This is flanked by two large one-over-one windows with wide wood surrounds; these windows project slightly from the wall. Another three-sided bay is on the south elevation, below the wood fire stairs. |
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| Status: |
Yes - Inventory |
| Classication: |
Building |
District Status: |
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| Cladding(s): |
Shingle - Concrete/Asbestos, Wood - Clapboard |
Foundation(s): |
Concrete - Poured |
| Roof Type(s): |
Hip |
Roof Material(s): |
Asphalt/Composition-Shingle |
| Building Type: |
Domestic - Multiple Family |
Plan: |
Rectangular |
| Structural System: |
Balloon Frame/Platform Frame |
No. of Stories: |
two & ½ |
| Unit Theme(s): |
Architecture/Landscape Architecture |
| Integrity |
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Changes to Windows: |
Moderate |
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Changes to Plan: |
Slight |
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Changes to Original Cladding: |
Moderate |
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| Major Bibliographic References |
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Polk's Seattle Directories, 1890-1996.
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King County Tax Assessor Records, ca. 1932-1972.
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City of Seattle, Department of Planning and Development, Microfilm Records.
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