Seattle Historical Sites

Summary for 4553 Thackeray PL / Parcel ID 8818400195 / Inv #

Historic Name: Common Name: Style: Arts & Crafts - Craftsman Neighborhood: Wallingford Built By: Year Built: 1919   Significance This house was erected in 1919. It was designed and built by the owner, Boyd N. Rodgers, a cabinetmaker who lived at 2121 1st Avenue when he applied for his building permit. Rodgers built a 18’ x 18’ garage on the property in 1921. Although a driveway does exist at the north side of the structure, the garage appears to no longer be extant. The Investors Syndicate Corporation owned the property by 1933. Gerhard B. Pearson lived at this address in 1938 but may not have owned it. Leo Jaeger, the current owner, appears to have acquired the property in 1957. This structure is significant as an intact and fairly well maintained example of craftsman bungalow design from the first years of Seattle’s second north end building boom. The house   Appearance This is a 1-1/2 story, clapboard and shingle clad frame residence on a concrete foundation over a 3/4 basement. The wide bargeboards supported by triangular knee braces, the unenclosed undersides of the overhangs, the exposed rafter tails, the added stick work in the front gable, and the detailing of the front porch and of the windows are all typical elements of craftsman bungalow design. The gable roofed front porch extends toward the street from the center of the east elevation and stretches across the central 90% of the east façade. The slope of the porch roof it much shallower than that of the main roof, accentuating the bungalow feel of the structure’s front end. The underside of the cased trim element at the base of the porch roof is gently curved. It is supported at the two outside corners of the porch by battered, built-up wood piers standing atop stone (or concrete) capped brick pedestals that extend from grade to hip height at the porch. Shorter pedestals stand guard either side of the entry stair where that element enters the porch. Brick arches spanning between the pedestals, and between the house and the corner pedestals, support the masonry porch railing. The entry door is centered in the back wall of the porch (the front wall of the house). Large double-hung windows stand symmetrically either side of the entry. The smaller upper sash of each window is divided by metal muntins into a pattern of rectangular lights arranged around two inverted bells. At the east elevation of the main house, in the gable above the porch roof, three double-hung windows are ganged and centered. The horizontal member at the bottom of the added stick work in the gable floats slightly above the window group head casing to form the base of this typical craftsman gable element. The main house is essentially a side gabled structure with a wide cross gable wing extending toward the street. A chimney rises along the south wall of the wing near the front end of the house. It is flanked by two small windows located high in the wall at the first floor level in typical bungalow manner. East of the chimney group, under the eastern slope of the gabled portion of the façade, is a shed-roofed bay that features a band of five double-hung windows, each with a small, undivided upper sash over a larger undivided lower sash. A trim assembly at the base of the bay is, in fact, a continuation of the water table that wraps the house at porch deck level. Centered in the wall west of the bay is a relatively new metal window. In the middle of the gable over the shed-roofed bay is a pair of double-hung windows. Each of these units is configured in the same manner as the windows in the face of the bay below. Two much smaller single sash windows are symmetrically placed to either side of the gable. At the north elevation, the side gabled portion of the house extends northward from the cross gabled wing at the front of the site, giving the structure a subtle “L” shaped footprint. A large rectangular window with a leaded glass pattern similar to that in the upper sash of one of the porch windows is more or less centered in the north wall of the east wing at the first floor level of the house. A large double-hung window is centered in the gable at the north end of the main building. It consists of a small, undivided upper light over a larger undivided lower light. Two similarly configured windows appear symmetrically placed at the main floor level. At the eastern edge of this northernmost projection of the floor plan, there is a door. It is located at the half level between the first floor and the basement where it interrupts the water table wrapping the house. A double-hung window at the half level between the first and second floors is located directly over the door. Except for the metal replacement window at the south elevation, no significant modifications are apparent.

Detail for 4553 Thackeray PL / Parcel ID 8818400195 / Inv #

Status: Yes - Inventory Classication: Building District Status: Cladding(s): Brick, Shingle, Wood, Wood - Clapboard Foundation(s): Concrete - Poured Roof Type(s): Gable, Shed Roof Material(s): Asphalt/Composition-Shingle Building Type: Domestic - Single Family Plan: L-Shape Structural System: Balloon Frame/Platform Frame No. of Stories: one & ½ Unit Theme(s): Architecture/Landscape Architecture, Community Planning/Development Integrity Changes to Windows: Slight Changes to Original Cladding: Intact Changes to Plan: Intact Major Bibliographic References City of Seattle DCLU Microfilm Records. King County Property Record Card (c. 1938-1972), Washington State Archives. Polk's Seattle Directories, 1890-1996.

Photo collection for 4553 Thackeray PL / Parcel ID 8818400195 / Inv #

Photo taken Aug 20, 2004