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Summary for 2457 26TH AVE / Parcel ID 6788200101 / Inv # 0

Historic Name: Dowell Residence Common Name:
Style: Tudor Neighborhood: Montlake
Built By: Year Built: 1932
 
Significance


The earliest known owners of this house, in 1938, were Dudley Dowell, Agency Director at New York Life Insurance Company, and his wife Elizabeth. A Boeing employee, Orval C. & Erma Schaefer, owned it in 1948. The owners in 1958 were Josiah Bowden, a building superintendent, and his wife Pearl.

 

Montlake is generally described as extending from the Washington Park Arboretum west to Portage Bay/15th Avenue E., and from the Montlake Cut on the north to Interlaken Park. The area is a significant and cohesive collection of residential architecture typical of early 20th century Seattle and is eligible as a NRHP historic district under Criterion C.  Construction occurred primarily between 1910 and 1940, with a variety of Craftsman and  revival styles ranging from modest cottages and builder's houses to high-style architect-designed residences, impressive institutional buildings, and notable parks and natural features.  There are few intrusions of newer buildings.  In the early 1960s, construction of SR 520 and the unfinished R.H. Thomson Expressway bisected Montlake, but the neighborhood retains its basic integrity as a pre-World War II Seattle neighborhood. 

Montlake was incorporated into the City of Seattle in 1891.  Although the first  plats (Union City 1st and 2nd additions) were filed by Harvey Pike in 1869-1871, development did not really begin until plats were filed by John Boyer (Interlaken, 1905) and H. S. Turner (1907). Montlake Park (north of SR 520) was platted in 1909 by the developers James Corner and Calvin and William Hagan.  With the 1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition came a streetcar line on 24th Avenue E. and an impetus for development. In 1916, the Lake Washington Ship Canal was completed and the Montlake Bridge linked the neighborhood to the university area in 1925. A small commercial district grew along the car line.

The 1903 Olmsted Parks and Boulevards Plan of 1903 surrounded Montlake with parks.  Montlake Boulevard (then call University Boulevard) connected Lake Washington Boulevard to the A-Y-P grounds.  Washington Park, the eastern boundary, was acquired by the City in 1900 and developed as an arboretum in 1936-41. At the southern edge is steep, forested Interlaken Park and boulevard.

By 1915, the neighborhood had developed enough to require a temporary school building; the permanent structure opened in 1924.Soon afterwards came a playfield and shelter house (1933-36) and a library (1944, replaced 2006). Other noteworthy structures include the Seattle Yacht Club (1920), the NOAA Northwest Fisheries Center (1931), the Museum of History and Industry (1952) and St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church (1962).

References

King County Tax Assessor Records, 1937-2014. 

Becker, Paula.  Seattle Neighborhoods: Montlake--Thumbnail History.  HistoryLink File # 10170, accessed 12/2/2013.

Gould, James W. Montlake History. http://www.scn.org/neighbors/montlake/mcc_history.Jim_Gould.html

Smith, Eugene. Montlake: An Urban Eden, A History of the Montlake Community in Seattle. La Grande OR: Oak Street Press, 2004.

 

 
Appearance
This one and a half story residence has an irregular plan under a side gable roof. It has a front projecting gable and a gabled dormer on the front roof slope. The entry is located at the apex where the main projecting front gable meets the primary façade wall, under the cat slide extension of the front gable projection. At the north end is a small tower with a three-sided conical roof. The wall beneath it is a three-sided bay, with a fixed window in front leaded casements on the sides. There is an exterior chimney on the south elevation. Cladding is red brick veneer. The dormer (added at an unknown date) is clad in wood clapboard and has a pair of double-hung windows. The main facade has a large, arched, leaded multi-light window with a small colored glass center pane. The house sits above the street and has a stone retaining wall across the front of the property and a garage at street level on the northeast corner of the site. The elevation and heavy landscaping obscure much of the property.

Detail for 2457 26TH AVE / Parcel ID 6788200101 / Inv # 0

Status: Yes - Inventory
Classication: Building District Status:
Cladding(s): Brick, Wood - Clapboard Foundation(s): Unknown
Roof Type(s): Gable Roof Material(s): Asphalt/Composition
Building Type: Domestic - Single Family Plan: Irregular
Structural System: Balloon Frame/Platform Frame No. of Stories: one & ½
Unit Theme(s): Architecture/Landscape Architecture
Integrity
Changes to Plan: Slight
Changes to Original Cladding: Intact
Changes to Windows: Intact
Major Bibliographic References

Photo collection for 2457 26TH AVE / Parcel ID 6788200101 / Inv # 0


Photo taken
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