This property is located in Eden Addition #2. It is indirectly associated with the era of modern industrialization around <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Lake <st1:placename w:st="on">Union and the establishment of new transportation routes and light industrial uses (1905 - 1930). It was reportedly constructed in 1923; however, a similar dwelling is shown on real estate or insurance maps c.1905. That residence may have been removed or demolished in order to build the subject dwelling. <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">King <st1:placetype w:st="on">County tax records indicate that the earliest known owner of the property was Joseph R. Reuter, who appears to have purchased it, 8-17-1917. Mr. Reuter also acquired the nearby property at <st1:street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">719 Highland Dr. on the same day where he appears to have built a very similar cottage. Joseph Reuter was listed in the 1910 US Census as a building contractor and most likely built this house and then owned it for several years as a real estate investment. [He is also known to have been an apartment developer & owner.] The 1937 <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">King <st1:placetype w:st="on">County tax records indicate that he (or his widow Emma) retained ownership until c. 1953 and noted “This area is rapidly becoming an Industrial District.”
By 1905, the cultural landscape of the South Lake Union neighborhood was characterized by dense residential development including family dwellings, older homes that had been converted to flats, modern flats, double houses and buildings identified as “tenements” or “lodgings.” Within five years apartment buildings began to be developed in the neighborhood, which was typical throughout most of the city. Several stores, churches and commercial operations had been established to serve the residents. During this period, the mill company complexes, including door and sash fabrication continued to operate, the brewery facilities expanded and a soap factory was established. In addition, at least five more commercial steam laundry companies established operations in the neighborhood. Beginning in 1907, shore lands around the edge of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Lake <st1:placename w:st="on">Union were filled in order to build modern shipping piers and create new railway freight routes. That same year, <st1:street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">Westlake Avenue was created; the 90-ft. wide arterial roadway was regraded and extended south to <st1:street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">Pike Street. In 1909, rail spurs were built along the south and west sides of the lake, as well as a north-south spur along <st1:street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">Terry Avenue where a freight depot was constructed in 1914 at <st1:street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">Thomas Street. These spur lines, the modernized <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Westlake route and the freight depot (and distribution center) attracted new enterprises to South Lake Union.
The oldest extant historic buildings in South Lake Union and Cascade are this domestic property type. Extant single family residences and double houses are indicative of what was once a densely populated residential community that was fully established in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Historic dwellings were typically modest in size and designed to accommodate working class families; these development patterns are directly related to transportation routes and the presence of industrial facilities, manufacturing plants and warehouse operations that provided nearby employment. Due to zoning changes, modern transportation patterns and current development pressure very few intact single family residences and double houses remain in place.
The development of working class dwellings and apartment houses near major arterials (along <st1:street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">Eastlake Avenue and <st1:street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">Dexter Avenue) is typical of historic residential development in the nearby portions of the adjoining neighborhoods (<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Eastlake, Capitol Hill, Queen Anne Hill). The construction of Highway 99 (<st1:street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">Aurora Avenue, along the original <st1:street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">7th Avenue N. alignment) in the early 1930s significantly impacted the established residential neighborhood around this residence and severed connections to the southeast slope of Queen Anne Hill.
