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.
According to the online King County Assessor’s Report and the Property Record Card, this house was built in 1900 or 1898, respectively. It is located in the Gilman Park Addition (1889), Block 9, Lot6.
The house was built on E North St. [now 65th] just east of 1st [now 17th], and the first entry in the 1903 Ballard City Directory shows Ernest Carlson (1867–1963), a carpenter/bridge carpenter and perhaps the builder, living there. Although the address was listed incorrectly in 1903 and 1904, by 1905 the address was correctly listed as 25 E North. Ernest C. W. Carlson, his wife Ida M. (nee Mattson) (1867–1947), and their family lived in the home through 1963.
Carlson was born in Aland Island, Finland, immigrated to Seattle in 1887, and was a bridge carpenter for the Northern Pacific Railway (from 1909–1938). When younger he had worked as a carpenter for the Newcastle coal mines and a mill company, and spent some time in Alaska. He also worked four years with the Great Northern Railway and at times built houses. Ida was also Finnish. She came to Seattle from Astoria, Oregon, married Ernest Carlson about 1892, and recalled an earlier Seattle with horse-drawn street cars and pastures that later became department stores.
The home was listed as vacant in the 1965 city directory, although it had already been purchased in 1964 by Glenn L. Hateh who sold the property three years later in 1967 to Stirling Whittle. By 1975 the home was owned and occupied by Ronald Chambers.
In 1979, John W. Kendall, III, and Carolyn J. Campbell (later Kendall) purchased the home, and resided there through about 2003, when John sold the property to Carolyn. Carolyn continued to live there until 2007, when she sold the home to John H. and Candace L. Rogers. The Rogers remodeled the basement and sold the home a year later in 2008 to John R. and Sarah J. Turosak, who lived there until 2015. The home was then sold to the current owners, as of May 2016, J. Shane and London Shanda McRoberts (from 2015–).
Sources:
Cole’s Seattle Directories. 2005 - 2015.
Polk’s Seattle City Directories. 1900 – 1994.
King County Department of Assessments (2016). http://gismaps.kingcounty.gov/parcelviewer2, accessed 5/31/2016.
King County Plat Maps, King County Recorder's Office. http://146.129.54.93:8193/localization/menu.asp accessed 5/31/2016.
King County Property Record Card. Washington State Archives. Puget Sound Regional Branch.
King County Recorder’s Office (2016). http://www.kingcounty.gov/depts/records-licensing/recorders-office.aspx accessed 5/31/2016.
Sanborn Map Company (Sanborn)
1905 Seattle, Washington 1904-1905. Sanborn Map Company, Seattle, Washington. Electronic document, http://www.spl.org, accessed May 31, 2016.
1917 Seattle, Washington 1917. Sanborn Map Company, Seattle, Washington. Electronic document, http://www.spl.org, accessed May 31, 2016.
The Seattle Daily Times
Mrs. Carlson’s Rites Tomorrow, February 7, 1947, pg. 14.
Ernest C. W. Carlson, March 10, 1963, pg. 163.
Washington Birth, Marriage, and Death Indexes. Electronic document via Ancestry Library Edition, http://www.spl.org, accessed 5/2016.
United States Federal Census. 1880–1940. Electronic document via HeritageQuest Online, http://www.spl.org, accessed 5/2016.
Washington, County Land Records, 1850-1954. King County Deed and Mortgage Indexes. https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1762885?collectionNameFilter=false, accessed 5/31/2016.
