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In the opinion of the survey, this property appears to meet the criteria of the Seattle Landmarks Preservation Ordinance. |
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Built in 1926, this building was designed by Seattle architect, J. Lister Holmes, and owned by Harry Lawton. Claire L. and Clarence Egtvedt and their daughter Evelyn moved into the building ca 1929 and remained through 1968. Mr. Egtvedt was vice president of Boeing Airplane Company. The Egtevdt’s previously lived at 3617 East Marion.
J. Lister Holmes (1891-1986), a native of Seattle, received his degree in architecture from the University of Pennsylvania in 1913. In 1920, he returned to Seattle and worked for several local firms before establishing his own practice in 1922. His Beaux-Arts training enabled him to design a considerable number of eclectic and revival style homes for prominent citizens. Holmes designed a variety of houses in a range of architectural idioms, including English Tudor, Spanish Colonial, Norman Provincial and 18th Century French. Among Holmes designs are the Harry Lawton house in Seattle, the W.W. Fisher, Jr. house in Broadmoor, and Collinswood, now the Bloedel Reserve on Bainbridge Island. He also designed the Sigma Chi Fraternity, and he collaborated with Philadelphia architects Mellor & Meigs on the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity. During the Depression, Holmes began designing houses in the newly-developing international Style. In 1939, he served as chief architect for the Seattle Housing Authority's first public housing project, Yesler Terrace, in which he was able to use the simplicity and lack of ornamentation of the new style to advantage. After the war, he continued his work in the International Style, designing clinics, banks, schools and houses.
The Mount Baker neighborhood comprises two north-south tending ridges located southeast of downtown Seattle along Lake Washington. Initial development of the area occurred relatively late, post-1900, following the construction of the Rainier Avenue Electric Street Railway in the 1890s. York Station on Rainier Avenue and the Dose Addition were developed earlier than the Mount Baker Park Addition, platted in 1907 by the Hunter Tract Improvement Company. The Mount Baker Park Addition represents the core of the neighborhood and is its primary character-defining feature. Mount Baker Park is one of Seattle’s earliest planned residential communities that successfully integrated the natural environment and a relatively exclusive residential neighborhood in its layout of lots, streets, boulevards, and parks. The houses, primarily built between 1905 and 1929, reflect a variety of eclectic and Northwest-based architectural styles, and include designs by many prominent local architects.
Other important influences were the streetcar connection with downtown Seattle, the integration of local parks and boulevards into the Olmsted system, the construction of Franklin High School in 1912, and the building of the Mount Baker tunnel and Lacey V. Murrow Floating Bridge to Mercer Island in 1940. Today this middle-to-upper income neighborhood remains predominantly residential, is home to an ethnically diverse population, and retains much of its planned character.
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