| Historic Name: |
Grand View Apartments |
Common Name: |
Grandview Apartments |
| Style: |
Commercial, Commercial - Chicago School |
Neighborhood: |
Cascade |
| Built By: |
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Year Built: |
1907 |
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| Significance |
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In the opinion of the survey, this property is located in a potential historic districe (National and/or local). |
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The Grandview at 409 Eastlake Avenue East is a wood frame apartment building with brick veneer completed in 1907. Based on historical photographs, it appears to be intact. It is also one of the earliest apartment buildings as well as brick veneer buildings constructed in the Cascade District during what was described as an explosive apartment building boom in Seattle in the 1906-1907 period in the Seattle Daily Bulletin/ Morning Times in 1907. Baist’s Maps of Seattle dating from 1908 show four prominent brick ,(even if some are brick veneer), buildings in the Cascade neighborhood: the Jensen Apartments, the Grandview, the Supply Laundry Building and the Cascade School (now demolished). Like the Jensen Block to the north, it is also one of the earliest apartment buildings constructed along Eastlake as part of an early residential/business district that began to take shape in the 600, 500 and 400 block of Eastlake by 1906 and into the 1910s and 1920s and which, in large part, is still extant. Also remaining from the early business/residential district and located close by are the former Pontius Garage, which is now Foreign Auto Rebuild at 421 Eastlake Avenue East (1926) and 425 Eastlake Avenue East, a Queen Anne style building, once an apartment building (1910). On its own and particularly in the context of the buildings in the 600, 500 and 400 block, the Grandview is part of an impressive and prominently placed ensemble of buildings, which bring back the sense of Seattle, in the early 1900s to 1920s, and is irreplaceable.
In the “Progress of Building in Seattle, No. 16,” also published in the Morning Times on May 8, 1907 is an item which certainly seems to concern the Grandview: “H. Ryan, architect, has filed plans for a 3-story brick veneer apartment house at 409 Eastlake Avenue for K. Kalseth & Company. This building will be 60 x 111 feet, constructed by day labor, and will cost $30,000.” A small diagram on the King County Assessor’s record card even shows dimensions that add up to 60 feet x 110 feet. H. Ryan is most probably Henderson Ryan, who at one point worked with John Creutzer, later the architect of Carolina Court, which is at 527 Eastlake East. Henderson Ryan was born in Alabama and educated at the University of Kentucky. He began his career in Seattle in 1899 as a builder/contractor, but then practiced as an architect for twenty three years, beginning in 1900. Examples of extant or recently demolished work in Seattle include the Roycroft Apartments (1906-1907) on Capitol Hill, the Waldorf Hotel of 1906-1907 (recently demolished for the Convention Center addition), the Maryland Apartments (1910-11), in addition to the later Neptune Theater (1921-22), located in the University District. The use of bays and the low slung arch for the entry seems to be fairly typical of his early Seattle apartment building designs.
By 1932, the fee owner for the Grandview was H.B. Carroll who was holding the building “in trust for M. H. Carroll.”
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| Appearance |
| The brick clad Grandview Apartments’ main elevation is symmetrically composed and faces Eastlake Avenue East. The plan of the building itself is an “H” shape, with a very long horizontal bar in the H; alternatively, the plan can be seen as two short parallel rectangular bars, with a long thinner bar set perpendicularly between them. The building is a wood frame structure, completely clad with brick veneer, except for the projecting wood bays on the east and west elevations. The roof is flat, with a parapet and projecting cornice on the Eastlake side, one of the shorter bars. The Eastlake façade is three stories high and has a clear base, middle and projecting cornice. There is also a basement level which is visible from the side and back elevations. The central bay of the main elevation projects very subtly from the surrounding wall and, in this way, is also clearly defined.
The main entrance is a wide, low slung arch, reminiscent of the work of H.H. Richardson or his followers. (The rest of the building is less Richardsonian, in terms of proportion). Above the main entrance, is an ornamental cornice, topped by pairs of double hung windows at the second and third levels of the façade. The central bay is then flanked by a single row of the same double hung windows. To each side of this subtly modulated ensemble is, beginning from the ground level, a single double hung window, topped by a two story, projecting bay, made of wood, and painted beige. The entire composition is then pulled together by modulated bands, topped by a band of small dentils, then five series of modillions, grouped in threes, set between the projecting wood bays. The modillions appear to “support” the projecting cornice, that is, they are placed beneath it. The cornice has a profile which is a variation on an ogee curve.
The north and south side elevations consist of two flat brick windowless walls, probably originally meant to be masked by another building, which flank a recessed wall, the “long bar, which has five pairs of double hung windows at each level. The shorter walls perpendicular to the “bar” have a single pair per floor. The recessed walls clearly were meant to allow for light wells and a courtyard, even if other buildings were to be built right up to the sides of the short “bars” on Eastlake or facing the alley. Because of the change of grade, which gets lower toward the west, basement level windows become visible above grade, as one moves west. The west elevation facing the alley is distinguished by its three story projecting bays set over the basement level of double hung windows at the ground level. The vertical combination of bay over window then flank another vertical row of double hung windows and then a central back stair. The back stair is open to the exterior and has a wooden railing. On this alley elevation, because of the change of grade, the row of basement windows now appears well above grade. |
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| Status: |
Yes - Inventory |
| Classication: |
Building |
District Status: |
INV |
| Cladding(s): |
Brick, Terra cotta, Wood |
Foundation(s): |
Concrete - Poured |
| Roof Type(s): |
Flat with Parapet |
Roof Material(s): |
Other |
| Building Type: |
Domestic - Multiple Family |
Plan: |
Irregular |
| Structural System: |
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No. of Stories: |
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| Unit Theme(s): |
Architecture/Landscape Architecture |
| Integrity |
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Changes to Original Cladding: |
Intact |
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Changes to Windows: |
Slight |
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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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Ochsner, Jeffrey Karl, ed. Shaping Seattle Architecture, A Historical Guide to the Architects. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1994.
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Baist, William, Baist’s Real Estate Atlas of Surveys of Seattle, Wash., Philadelphia: W. G. Baist, 1908 &1912, Section 7.
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Tonkin Hoyne Lokan, Architects, "Jensen Block," Seattle Landmark Nomination, 1995.
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Seattle Daily Bulletin/ The Morning Times, May 8, 1907 and Sept.14, 1907.
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