Seattle Historical Sites

Summary for 4011 Sunnyside AVE / Parcel ID 9178600990 / Inv #

Historic Name: Common Name: Style: Colonial - Dutch Colonial Neighborhood: Wallingford Built By: Year Built: 1917   Significance This house was erected in 1917. It was built by Eric A. Thornberg, a carpenter who lived at 6547 4th Avenue N. E., for owner Maude O. Koester, who acquired the property in 1917 according to the King County Property Record Card prepared in 1937. Ms. Koester’s husband, Anthony J. Koester, is listed as the owner’s authorized agent on the permit application. The owner’s address is listed as 4028 Bagley Avenue and the design is attributed to the Craftsman Bungalow Company. A. J. Koester and Ernest H. Anderson (a crane operator according to city directories) built a garage on the property in 1923. Another garage was built in 1932, according to the permit record, but it does not appear that either of these structures is still extant. Both garages were noted on the Property Record Card prepared in 1937 but were later crossed out as if the structures had been destroyed. A. J. Koester was at this address at least until 1938. The Assessor’s records suggest that Patrick J. Tomkins acquired the house in 1964. Lynn J. Schwartz came in to possession of the property in 1969, and Frederick R. Berg acquired it in 1971. The current owners bought the property from Thomas M. and Margaret Fitzpatrick in 1994. An addition and alteration was completed for owners Robert and Janet Morrison (the current owners) in 1995. The builder is listed on the permit application as Peter Steinbrueck. This structure is significant as an intact and well-maintained example of Dutch colonial revival design completed in the last year of Seattle’s first north end building boom. The structure is an example of the work typically produced by the Craftsman Bungalow Company in the later years of that firm’s operation.   Appearance This is a two story, clapboard and shingle clad frame residence on a concrete foundation over a full basement. The gambrel roof with its moderate overhangs, enclosed soffits, and cornice returns, the pents at the side elevations, the entry -- with its pedimented porch roof supported by Tuscan columns -- centered in the street façade, and the symmetry of the east and south elevations are all elements associated with the Dutch colonial revival style. An entry door with narrow sidelights is centered in a notch at the back of the entry porch. At either side of the notch are recesses that feature engaged pilasters that visually support the back end of the porch roof. In the middle of the front wall to either side of the entry is a group of three windows. Each group consists of a central double-hung unit with an upper sash divided into eight lights in a 2 x 4 pattern (the typical double-hung window configuration for this structure) flanked by two narrower units, each with six lights in the upper sash. A shingle clad, shed-roofed dormer, nearly as wide as the house itself, is centered in the east-facing slope of the side gabled gambrel roof. At each end of the dormer’s front elevation is a pair of double-hung windows, each featuring the typical configuration described above. A small single sash window, divided into four equal lights, is centered in the dormer directly over the entry. Like the front of the house, the building’s south elevation is symmetrically organized. A typically configured double-hung window is located a few feet either side of the south elevation’s central axis at both the upper and lower levels. A square attic vent is placed in the middle of a cased, semicircular panel centered in the elevation near the top of the gable. A pent stretches across the north and south elevation of the house, separating the shingles of the gable end above from the clapboard siding the wraps the house below the eaves. The north elevation is very similar to that at the south end of the house, except that the westernmost windows are somewhat shorter than those to the east, and the window at the west end of the main level is also narrower and has six rather than eight lights. A small, single sash window with four lights is located on the gable’s central axis between the two upper floor windows. The west elevation cannot be observed from the street. The window boxes that once stretched along the sill at the base of the main floor street façade windows have been removed. No significant modifications are apparent.

Detail for 4011 Sunnyside AVE / Parcel ID 9178600990 / Inv #

Status: Yes - Inventory Classication: Building District Status: Cladding(s): Shingle, Wood, Wood - Clapboard Foundation(s): Concrete - Poured Roof Type(s): Gambrel, Shed Roof Material(s): Asphalt/Composition-Shingle Building Type: Domestic - Single Family Plan: Rectangular Structural System: Balloon Frame/Platform Frame No. of Stories: two Unit Theme(s): Architecture/Landscape Architecture, Community Planning/Development Integrity Changes to Original Cladding: Intact Changes to Windows: Intact Changes to Plan: Slight Major Bibliographic References City of Seattle DCLU Microfilm Records. King County Property Record Card (c. 1938-1972), Washington State Archives. Polk's Seattle Directories, 1890-1996.

Photo collection for 4011 Sunnyside AVE / Parcel ID 9178600990 / Inv #

Photo taken Aug 12, 2004