Seattle Historical Sites

Residential Ballard is generally described as extending from the 8th Avenue NW to the east and the bluff to the west, and from NW 85th Street on the north to NW 65th Street to the south. The area primarily contains single family houses, but also includes a collection of mutli-family dwellings, commercial buildings, schools, churches, and other buildings. Most of the historic buildings in Ballard are modest cottages and builder's houses, and were not architect-designed. Building styles include, but are not limited to, Victorian (primarily Queen Anne), vernacular, Craftsman, American Foursquare, Colonial Revival (including variations), Tudor Revival, Minimal Traditional, and Ranch. The historic building fabric of Ballard is threatened by a rapid pace of development.

The City of Ballard was incorporated in 1890. It was the first community to incorporate after Washington achieved statehood in 1889. Although population increased rapidly, north Ballard was still relatively rural. In 1907, primarily due to lack of adequate water for its population of 15,000, Ballard citizens voted to be annexed to Seattle to ensure a good water supply for the area.

After annexation Ballard’s street names were changed to conform to Seattle’s: Ship Street turned into 65th Street, Main Street became 15th Avenue.  During the Great Depression and World War II, construction in Ballard nearly ground to a halt, with the exception of some houses built by Earl F. Mench. However, following World War II, fueled by the G.I. bill and the rise of the automobile, Ballard boomed again, and new housing followed. In recent years, the demand for new housing has spurred a tremendous amount of change in Ballard, with old, modest houses being replaced by large box houses and multi-family units. These changes threaten to alter the character and feeling of this historic neighborhood.

References

Ballard Historical Society Classic Home Tour guides.

Crowley, Walt. Seattle Neighborhoods: Ballard--Thumbnail History.  HistoryLink File # 983, accessed 6/1/16.

King County Tax Assessor Records, 1937-2014.  

McAlester, Virginia Savage.

A Field Guide to American Houses (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Alfred A Knopf Press, 2013.

Oschsner, Jeffrey Karl

Shaping Seattle Architecture: A Historical Guide to the Architects. Seattle, WA: University of

Washington Press, 1994.

Passport to Ballard: The Centennial Story. Seattle, WA: Ballard News Tribune, 1988.

Over the 100+ years since it was built, the house at 7003 26th Avenue NW has been home to just a handful of families. The first known owner was William T. Roberts (born 1868) who applied for a side sewer permit in April of 1911; the contractor of record is Louis Benson, a Swede who emigrated to the United States in 1888 and worked as a blacksmith. Mr. Benson arrived in Seattle via Wisconsin, and lived in Ballard with his wife Ida from at least 1910 until his death sometime in the 1930s. Mr. Roberts was an electrician from Michigan who, in 1910, was living with his wife Mary and their children at 7332 25th Avenue NW—just a couple of blocks away from the site on 26th. They moved into the house at 7003 26th Avenue upon its completion and stayed there until 1918 when they moved to 5810 17th NW. In those early years 1910-1920, neighbors on the street included a logger, laundry girl, shipwright, lumber camp cook, and mason from California, Idaho, Oregon, Wisconsin, and Sweden. By 1930 the street included families from Canada, Iceland, Sweden, and Minnesota, as well as Washington state; occupations included restaurant workers, marine workers, dry goods employees, a laundress, and vegetable sellers.

When it was built in 1912, the house was one of just five on 26th Avenue; the street was not fully built out until 1948. It sits prominently on a small rise, giving it a commanding presence on the block. A rockery extends all around the outside edges of the property and concrete steps lead, first, to the lawn, and then to the house porch itself. The house is two stories with a front-facing gable, corner recessed entry, and prominent cross gable roof dormers centrally located. There is a pop-out with triple window on first floor south façade. A stringcourse demarcates the first and second stories, delineates the foundation from the first level, and articulates the ceiling level of the second story; all house windows hang from their respective stringcourse trim board which effectively also serves as upper window trim.

The primary windows on both stories are double-hung in pairs or triples. At the attic level, two square windows are placed on point—as diamonds—on either side of a pair of double-hung windows on the front and rear façade. The exterior is narrow lap siding for the first story, with wider lap siding at the foundation level, and shingles at the second story. The foundation stringcourse is wider than those above; these features—wider lap siding and stringcourse—at the foundation nicely “ground” the house to its site, and coupled with other Craftsman detailing including knee braces and barge boards, indicate a level of care and sophistication by the builder beyond the usual. The recessed front entry is situated at the northwest corner of the house and consists of a half wall supported by two large, square posts that extend to the middle stringcourse.