| Historic Name: |
Cline, George W., House |
Common Name: |
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| Style: |
American Foursquare |
Neighborhood: |
Capitol Hill |
| Built By: |
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Year Built: |
1905 |
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| Significance |
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In the opinion of the survey, this property appears to meet the criteria of the National Register of Historic Places. |
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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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In the opinion of the survey, this property is located in a potential historic districe (National and/or local). |
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The most distinctive feature of this large Foursquare is its wide recessed porch with its graceful arched opening and turned balustrade. The house has a hipped roof with hipped dormers on the east and west sides and a rather small gabled dormer in the front. The classing is clapboard on the first story with stucco on the second. Windows on the first floor and in the second floor bay have elaborately patterened leaded glss. are relatively simple with The form varies somewhat from a Foursquare in that the two-thirds of the façade with the porch projects out a few feet. In the recessed section at the northeast corner, the second floor projects over the first, and there is a three-sided hanging bay window. The recessed section has
This part of Capitol Hill has the city’s greatest concentration of American Foursquare houses—often called the Classic Box or Seattle Box, because of its local popularity. They were built primarily between 1905 and 1910. Most of these houses were not designed by an architect, but were built by local builders from patterns purchased from magazines. Most have a wide front porch with heavy posts or columns and a hip roof, often with dormers. There are typically eight main rooms on two floors--living room, hall, dining room and kitchen downstairs and four bedrooms upstairs. Two reasons for their popularity were that they provided a large amount of space for reasonable cost, and that they could be personalized depending on an owners taste and budget. This neighborhood has numerous variations, from simple unornamented versions to elaborately detailed ones with multiple columns, beveled leaded glass windows and exotic accent windows.
This is one of the original Capitol Hill plats of James A. Moore, who gave the area its name. In 1900 Moore, who had already developed other Seattle neighborhoods, purchased and began platting 160 acres, roughly between 11th and 20th avenues, from Roy Street north to Galer. Before selling lots for construction, he graded and paved the streets (eliminating the dust that plagued many sections), installed sidewalks, water mains and sewer lines, and planned for street lights and telephone poles. Lots went on sale in 1901, heavily promoted to attract local business leaders as residents. This was the first part of Seattle developed in this way. Moore did not build houses for sale, but sold improved lots to builders or to people who then hired a builder to construct a home to their own taste. Covenants required that homes cost at least $3,000 to build and be at least 24 feet from the sidewalk. The 800 lots sold quickly to company owners, managers, executives, bankers, doctors, and attorneys. The lots grew in value by 300% over the next 12 years.
Henderson Ryan (b. 1878) arrived in Seattle in 1898 after attending the University of Kentucky. He first worked as a contractor-builder, but opened his own architectural practice in 1900. His first notable work was Ballard's Carnegie library (1903-04). He then embarked on a series of apartment house designs, including the Waldorf Hotel (1905-06, demolished), the Roycroft (1907), and the Fredonia (1908). His most significant apartment design is the Maryland (1910-11), a designated Seattle historic landmark. Numerous other apartments and other structures have been attributed to Ryan, most of which do not survive: the 11-story Raleigh Hotel, the Antonia Apartments, the Taylor, the Keene Apartments, the Broadway Building and the Moore Building. He also had a large residential practice. His career turned to theater design with the Liberty Theater (1912, demolished) and the Neptune Theater (1921-22). For the Liberty he originated and patented a new ramp design that provided easy balcony access while maximizing auditorium space. This innovation evidently led to commissions for theaters in Butte and Helena, Montana, and elsewhere throughout the country. He moved to California in 1923, perhaps to continue his work in theater design.
Ryan was best known for his apartment houses, including the Maryland.
Elegant Classic Box with Egyptian-style capitals, corner bays, wide eaves with exposed rafter tails, and a second-story porch. Mr. Cline owned a piano store.
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