| 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: |
1923 |
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| Significance |
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This house was erected 1922-23. According to the building permit (#217598), the original owner, designer and contractor was prolific Wallingford merchant builder Stephen Berg. Berg also built the houses at 4307 Meridian (permit #217597) and 4311 Meridian (permit #217596) about the same time. The initial resident of this structure is not known.
A. L. Cliff, another local contractor, built a garage at the back of the lot for owner Ira Hinckley between October and December 1931. Hinckley and his wife Grace had purchased the house in August of that year according to the King Couth Property Record Card prepared by the Assessor in 1937, although Grace had been widowed by the time of the Assessor’s survey. The house is described as a one-story structure on the Record Card; however, it is also clear that the attic was finished at some point prior to 1937.
Grace Hinckley was still living at the house in the mid 1960s. Martha Hinckley appears to have purchased the property in 1970 and lived there until 1975. Changes were made to the furnace in 1972.
In 1976, the electric service was upgraded and a dryer circuit added by owner Michael S. Alhadeff who appears to have purchased the house the previous year. Alhadeff lived in the house until at least 1979.
Robert D. Besecker, Jr. and his wife Rhoda apparently became the owners in 1979 or 1980. They added a deck to the house in 1983 and modified the heating system again in 1985. From 1985 to 1988, M. Watkins is listed as the resident of the house in Polk’s Seattle Directory, however, it is not clear if Watkins was the homeowner or a tenant.
One of the current owners, Nicholas Gellert, has been living in the house since at least 1990. Nicholas Gellert and Tamara Gibson are listed as the owners on permits to remodel the kitchen and improve the electrical system in 1994. The electrical system was improved again by Nicholas and Tamara Gellert in 1999-2000.
The structure is significant as an intact example of the craftsman style housing being erected by merchant builder Stephen Berg just after the First World War in the initial years of Seattle’s second north end building boom. The house is also is significant as one of three adjacent structures built by Berg in similar styles and at the same time.
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| Appearance |
| This is a 1-1/2 story shingle clad frame residence on a poured concrete foundation over a full basement. The moderate slope of the clipped gable roof, the wide barge boards supported by triangular timber knee braces, the open soffits and exposed rafter tails, the bungalow style double-hung windows and four unit window assemblies at the south and west elevations (each consisting of a square fixed window flanked by two narrower rectangular windows and surmounted by a long transom unit), the battered built up wood piers standing atop waist high square brick pedestals at the outside corners of the projecting entry, the heavy porch rail, and the patterned shingle siding all are characteristic components of craftsman bungalows built in Wallingford. The north wall of the structure appears altered and some new windows are located there, and the siding may have been replaced in kind (although in the original pattern). No other modifications are apparent. |
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