| Historic Name: |
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Common Name: |
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| Style: |
Arts & Crafts - Craftsman |
Neighborhood: |
Wallingford |
| Built By: |
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Year Built: |
1908 |
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| Significance |
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This house was erected in 1908 according to the King County Property Record Card begun in 1937 and the King County Assessor Property Characteristics Report (accessed 2004). It has not been possible to locate a building permit for this structure; as a result, the names of the original owner, builder and designer of the house are not known with any certainty.
The property was acquired by Oscar A Piper and others in 1916, according to the assessor’s records, although it appears that Piper, a district engineer with the City of Seattle, had been living at the site since 1909 and was probably the structure’s original resident. A garage was erected at the site in 1921 by day laborers for Piper.
Piper continued at the site until sometime between 1944 and 1949 when W. B. Simon replaced him. Later owners may have included Adam Grass (from 1951) and Jack D Brooks (from 1963).
This structure is significant as a exceptionally intact, skillfully detailed and well-maintained craftsman bungalow built in the early years of Seattle’s first north end building boom.
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| Appearance |
| This is a one story, clapboard and stucco clad frame residence on a concrete foundation over a full basement. The low slope of the roof, the wide bargeboards supported by carefully articulated triangular timber knee braces, the unenclosed framing at the undersides of the broad overhangs, the exposed rafter tails (now partially hidden by added gutters), and the detailing of the porch and windows are all features of this structure that are closely associated with the craftsman bungalow style.
The porch projects towards the street from the northern half of the west elevation. It has been maintained in a condition very close to its original form. Its gabled roof follows the pattern of detailing employed at the main roof and the two roofs are continuous at their south facing slopes. The porch gable itself is finished with stucco and half-timbering. The outside corners of the porch roof are supported by built-up wood piers standing on wood capped, clapboard clad pedestals that extend from grade to waist height at the porch deck. The front steps rise to the entry porch between clapboard-clad sidewalls. The stairway and the entry door share an axis, but this line is shifted south of the central axis of the porch itself. Two small divided windows are situated high in the wall to the north of the entry door.
The gable of the main roof also features a stucco finish, although the half timbering employed at the porch roof is not used in the larger gable. Two apparently fixed attic windows, both much wider than they are tall, are paired and centered in the gable. Each is divided into eight lights organized in a 2 x 4 pattern.
Below the level of the main roof eaves, the structure is clad with narrow clapboards. A horizontal trim piece wraps the house at the structure’s waist, connecting the sills of the larger windows and dividing the narrow clapboards of the house’s upper body from the wider clapboard of the skirting below.
A shed-roofed bay extends toward the street from the west elevation south of the entry. The window assembly centered in its face includes a central double-hung unit with an upper sash divided in a 2 x 6 pattern over a much larger undivided lower sash, and two narrow flanking units, each with an upper sash divided into six lights in a 3 x 2 pattern over a similarly proportioned but undivided lower sash.
A gable-roofed bay projects into the side yard from near the center of the south elevation. It features a centered group of three window openings, each with a pair of casements. Each casement sash is divided into five lights – four small lights in a 2 x 2 pattern near the top of the sash and a fifth, much larger lights below. A large double-hung window with sixteen small lights in the upper sash, and a small fixed window with ten lights are situated in the south wall to the west of the bay. A simple small double-hung unit is located in the wall just east of the bay. A new, large basement window has been added at the base of the wall near the front end of the elevation. Two small rectangular basement windows are located at the base of the wall to the east.
At the western end of the north elevation is an assembly of windows sharing a common header and consisting of a fixed unit, with a high sill and a single sash divided into eight lights, flanked by two undivided double-hung units with lower sills that are coordinated with the horizontal trim band wrapping the house. A undivided double-hung unit, similar in size and configuration to the flanking units just described, stands at the east end of the elevation; a shorter double-hung unit is situated a few feet to the west of the easternmost unit. Approximately five small basement windows are distributed along the base of the wall.
The back of the house (the east elevation) cannot be observed from the street.
Although the detached garage at this site appears to have been modified, no significant modifications to the house itself (other than the new basement window) are apparent. |
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| Status: |
Yes - Inventory |
| Classication: |
Building |
District Status: |
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| Cladding(s): |
Stucco, Wood, Wood - Clapboard |
Foundation(s): |
Concrete - Poured |
| Roof Type(s): |
Gable |
Roof Material(s): |
Asphalt/Composition-Shingle |
| Building Type: |
Domestic - Single Family |
Plan: |
Rectangular |
| Structural System: |
Balloon Frame/Platform Frame |
No. of Stories: |
one |
| Unit Theme(s): |
Architecture/Landscape Architecture, Community Planning/Development |
| Integrity |
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Changes to Windows: |
Slight |
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Changes to Original Cladding: |
Intact |
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Changes to Plan: |
Intact |
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| Major Bibliographic References |
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City of Seattle DCLU Microfilm Records.
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King County Property Record Card (c. 1938-1972), Washington State Archives.
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Polk's Seattle Directories, 1890-1996.
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