Seattle Architecture

Christian: [0:00] Hello, hello, and welcome to another episode of the Awesome in Seattle podcast. This is Christian Nossum of the Awesome Nossum Group at Wilson Realty Exchange, Inc, and today we're gonna give you a brief history of Seattle's residential architecture. So as experienced real estate agents in this great city we call home, we're very familiar with the many different types of housing designs found in Seattle. While there's a wealth of architectural styles throughout the city and suburbs, not all styles are available in every neighborhood because of the way that Seattle was developed. If you can imagine, like, a, dropping a rock in a pond, with downtown Seattle being, like, the epicenter of the rock dropping in, Seattle expanded in rings going north and south over time. And from the settlements of the 1800s through today, Seattle has been a place where population growth, convenience, wants, needs, economics, war, and popular trends have impacted when and where certain types of homes were built. Before we track the timeline of Seattle's residential architecture and dig into some of the most iconic styles and where to find them, I gotta, I gotta intro my co-hosts, the awesome agents of the Awesome Nossum Group. First up, we have the Seattle native, Ms. Reed Watson.

Reed: [1:12] That's me.

Christian: [1:13] We have the newbie to the team, Nicholas Toll. That's me. Hey. And the dog whisperer, Mr. Les Cutting.

Les: [1:20] Hello, everybody.

Christian: [1:24] All right, so like a lot of large cities, most of the neighborhoods in Seattle feature homes built in the type of architecture prevalent in that era, but Seattle's unique in a few different ways. Like geographically, water has long shaped the development of Seattle. One of the original settlements, now known as Pioneer Square, was built along Elliott Bay. Immediately north of the city center are several bodies of water like Lake Union, Salmon Bay, which is between Ballard and Green Lake, and Portage Bay just south of the UW campus. We also have Lake Washington, which was connected with Portage Bay by a man-made canal called the Montlake Cut in the early 20th century to allow ships and goods to pass from Lake Washington in the east all the way out to Puget Sound in the west. Basically, water not only surrounds this city, but bisects it as well, making bridges, docks, and great waterfront views a part of daily life. While we all agree that water is an essential part of living in the area, the geographic realities mean expansion of the city from the original plot on the western waterfront was limited to just north and south. Seattle's population growth also affected Seattle's expansion. From huge influxes and a few decreases to periods of slow and steady climbs, Seattle has been subject to numerous international, national, regional, and local factors that have brought people to the area at certain different times. The cumulative effect resulted in distinct neighborhoods that serve almost as a fossil record of Seattle's growth across time. Now let's dig into the timeline a little bit more, starting with the founding.

Speaker 4: [2:59] Since Seattle's arguably the furthest major city in the continental US from the 13 major colonies, settlers didn't arrive in significant numbers until the 1850s Compared to back, the cities back east, Seattle got a late start, really, really late. Uh, of course, the native people of the area had been here for thousands of years prior, but none of the original structures survived. Our focus for this podcast will be from US settlement on forward. So when Seattle finally obtained its charter on December 2nd, 1869, it was an unstructured plot of land with disparate housing for a population of just over 1,000 residents. So thanks to some strategic advertising, it didn't take long for Americans and Europeans alike to see the beauty of the area, and with the arrival of the Northern Pacific Railroad, first to Tacoma in 1873 and to Seattle in 1884, Seattle began to boom. Much of the early development was focused on gaining a foothold in the area, not necessarily beauty or style. It wasn't until the 1880s that distinct aesthetic outcomes drove design.

Speaker 5: [4:00] Uh, and then after the, uh, the Great Seattle Fire in the 1880s, they had to rebuild the city and they s- they started to develop some m- you know, more distinct styles. And, uh, new money families from the railroad and timber and other industries started to flaunt their wealth with more lavish, like Victorian and Gothic and Queen Anne style homes. You know, in Pioneer Square you can see bigger buildings that are like brick and kind of Gothic inspired, but then the, the hills surrounding downtown, First Hill, Queen Anne, they started building these really elegant homes, some of which still survive. A lot of them have been torn down, but the common features of this style include like a gabled roof, scalloped shingle siding on the upper level, covered porches with round columns, and then a turret. It's, can be round or octagonal. And the popularity of these homes in the Queen Anne neighborhood is actually why that hill and that neighborhood got their name, uh, they're named after the Queen Anne homes. But you can find them still like, you know, in Capitol Hill, Mount Baker, Madrona, and First Hill, um, as well. And of course out in Port Townsend there's, you know, there's a lot, but that's, you know- Further out

Reed: [5:13] Yeah, I was actually gonna say as well, if you really like those Victorian style houses, you've gotta go out to Port Townsend where they've- Oh,

Speaker 5: [5:18] yeah, it's beautiful … Reed: preserved them a little bit more. So yeah, m- Seattle was similar to kind of the way that Port Townsend still looks right today with just those Victorian homes until the turn of the 20th century. Uh, m- around the turn of the 20th century through the Great Depression is arguably considered the, quote-unquote, "Golden Age of home building" in Seattle. Um, we really had, you know, a housing boom in terms of building more homes and just kind of a di- some diversified styles as well. So three distinct styles really define this era and have kind of withstood the test of time in Seattle. You have the Tudor, the Seattle box, and the Craftsman style homes that are still extremely popular today. So the Tudor is kind of what you would think of as a Tudor style home, known for their steeply pitched roofs, side gables, decorative half timbering on the exterior, and those were built in Seattle through about the 1930s. Tudor homes were just a little bit less ornate than Victorian and Queen Anne style homes that were their predecessors, but still have that kind of classic old world charm, still quite traditional. Uh, for an example of Tudor style architecture, you might try a tour of Seattle's famous Stimson Green House built in 1901 Um, there are also lots of just great examples of Tudor style homes throughout the area, and one thing I think is kind of cool about Seattle is that you have a couple of different sizes and styles of Tudor style homes. So in areas like Magnolia and Queen Anne, along with the Victorian homes we mentioned, you're gonna see a lot of those Tudor style homes that are a little bit larger, more traditional. And then places like Ballard, you have the more compact, um, brick-based Tudor style houses that are a little bit smaller and still have those really angled roofs and the traditional Tudor character on the outside.

Christian: [7:17] Where is the Stimson Green house?

Speaker 5: [7:20] It's in First Hill. It's kind of on s- I think it's on Bring or something. Yeah, it's… There's, there's, like, three of the original mansions on First Hill that still survive and, yeah, Stimson Green is one of them.

Reed: [7:31] Cool.

Christian: [7:32] I've never heard of it.

Speaker 5: [7:33] I find a lot of, um, a lot of mid-size Tudors as well in, like, Ravenna area.

Reed: [7:39] Yeah.

Speaker 5: [7:39] Yeah.

Reed: [7:40] That's very true.

Speaker 5: [7:41] Mm-hmm. And there's a few in, even up in Broadview, which was mainly built in the, um, in the 1950s, but they, there are a few, a few houses up there that were, you know, from back when it was, like, a farming community, and some of them are kind of mid-sized Tudors.

Speaker 4: [7:55] Yeah. What about Beacon Hill? I feel like in South Seattle there's quite a bit of Tudors as well.

Reed: [7:59] Yeah, some of those, like, smaller ones.

Speaker 5: [8:01] Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Reed: [8:02] Definitely.

Speaker 5: [8:02] Yeah, I think Beacon Hill has some smaller Tudors. And, uh, um, Mount Baker, but Mount Baker really has- Yeah … everything.

Christian: [8:08] Yeah,

Reed: [8:08] that's true. That's true. So another architectural style that really got a foothold in Seattle at the turn of the 20th century is the Seattle box, or the four square design. The four square design was popular across the country, but the basic concepts were modified very distinctly in the Seattle area so that we kind of have our own sub-style, which people refer to as the Seattle box.

Christian: [8:34] We're so cool. Ooh. We just take someone else's idea and call it our own.

Reed: [8:38] Generally. Agreed. Um, four square homes are known for their almost perfectly, you guessed it, square shape. Mm. And their two-story simplicity with a large front porch that has those kind of blocky columns, so kind of a front porch that runs along the length of the house. You can sit out and people watch. The Seattle adaptation often featured an inset front porch and a thrust out second story window, um, and window bays to gather more sunlight and also to protect the porch from, you know, the rain and the weather. So- Seattle box homes are commonly found in Beacon Hill and Capitol Hill. I would also definitely add kind of the Montlake area to that.

Speaker 5: [9:24] Mm-hmm.

Reed: [9:24] What are- In the U

Speaker 5: [9:25] District.

Reed: [9:26] Yep. I, I feel like they're sort of- Central District … all over. Um- Yeah.

Christian: [9:29] I just saw one come on the market last week in Ballard, actually, like Sunset Hill. Oh, really? Yep. Mm-hmm.

Speaker 5: [9:34] Oh, yeah, Sunset Hill, I can see that. You know, I- Mm-hmm … I've heard, I've always heard there's a lot on Beacon Hill, but I have yet to see that many on Beacon Hill. They're everywhere in East Capitol Hill and- Mm-hmm … in the northern parts of the U District, uh, and in the Central District. But, yeah, I, I don't, I haven't seen

Christian: [9:52] them on Beacon Hill. There were, there used to be more. A lot of them s- weren't well taken care of, and they were right- Yeah … near kind of the downtown North Beacon Hill-

Speaker 5: [10:01] Oh,

Christian: [10:01] okay … uh, area, and they got torn down to put townhomes up a lot of times. Okay. So that there's not as many there anymore.

Speaker 5: [10:08] Oh, okay. Uh, yeah, so the Seattle box and the four-square, they're really, um, uh, they're- they're a type of Craftsman, really. They're a larger- a larger type of Craftsman. But Craftsman houses also, and perhaps more commonly, came in smaller varieties, such as the Craftsman bungalow. This kind of… It- it started as sort of like a small summer cottage for people, but it started to become popular as just normal year-round houses for middle-class families. It- it has some of the same columns on the front porch. The front porches in general, all of that, it kind of shares with things like the Seattle box, where, you know, the big blocky columns. Mm. They- they- they often have, like, wide, low-pitched gable or hipped roofs th- though, uh, with wide eaves and triangular brackets. Porch can be similar to the Seattle box in some ways, but it's got, it's normally got kind of a, a gabled roof above the porch, too, though, which is a little different than the four-square. And they were popular around the same time as the four-squares and the Seattle boxes. They were really popular from about n- you know, mid-1910s to about the Depression era. And they were more in tune with the, the middle class th- than the, than the larger Victorian and Tudor houses were. And they were built often by, um, a lot of them were built by this, uh, one particular architect, Judd Yoho, who was, you know, really popular. He built a lot of homes in Ravenna. You can find a lot of them in Ravenna and Roosevelt. You can also find them all over, like, uh, Greenwood and Phinney Ridge and really, uh, a lot of those neighborhoods that are kind of one ripple, as you said earlier- Right. … one ripple outside of, outside of the oldest ripple of the North End. Right. Which would be the U District, Ballard, Wallingford. One ripple outside of that, you find a lot of these, these Craftsman bungalows.

Christian: [12:05] So we've gone from the initial settlement of Seattle up to about the 1930s. So let's go from the 1940s to the 1960s. Now, as was common across the country during this time, home building virtually stopped during World War II, except for war-related construction. However, in the post-war boom, the still undeveloped areas of- of the city were filled in. From the end of World War II until around 1970, Seattle, like the rest of the US, saw the suburbs flourish. In Seattle, the trend toward suburbanization was assisted by major transportation projects like the Mercer Island Floating Bridge, AKA I-90, and that was in 1940. And the Evergreen Point Floating Bridge, otherwise known as 520, uh, that was in 1963. That opened up the east side of Lake Washington to commuters, and the construction of I-5 through Seattle happened in the '60s. So all of these things helped the suburbs flourish. Architecturally during this time, the single-story ranch was the most prevalent style of this entire era. Although mid-century modernism affected how some of these homes were integrated with the Seattle environment Many, though not all Seattle ranch-style homes are builder spec houses, and they offer a forward-looking, streamlined aesthetic, an evolution of the prairie style where the ranch w- originated. Living rooms often featured vaulted ceilings, view-friendly decks, integrated gardens, and brick or stone veneers which added some texture. There are many mid-century modern homes from all the way in Magnolia to Northeast Seattle, like Viewridge, Hawthorne Hills, Wedgwood, and parts of Seattle. So now we're talking kind of that second ripple from downtown just north of kind of the U District, Wallingford, that era, going north towards, like, Green Lake. Not to be forgotten, Cape Cod-style homes were also popular in the post-uh, war era, and you can find them all throughout this kind of second ripple as well.

Speaker 4: [14:17] So from the 1970s to the 1990s, condos and townhouses began appearing in the 1970s, joining other multi-family dwellings that were popping up in some of Seattle's existing neighborhoods. This is an amazing statistic that shows the boom of multi-family housing as Seattle became a popular area for headquarters of business and industry. From 1884 until 2008, Seattle issued only 18,000 building permits for single family dwellings, but issued around 74,000 permits for multi-family units. That's four times as many. Whoa. That's cra- that's crazy, huh?

Christian: [14:52] That is crazy.

Speaker 4: [14:54] Early in this period, single family residential, the raised ranch or split-level ranch became the style of the day, with its integrated garage on the bottom floor with the main living spaces and bedroom dedicated to the second floor. As the economy grew in the '90s and it began to progress, you s- we started to see bigger planned developments in the suburbs such as Issaquah Highland. Although they lifted some details from the Craftsman home and other historic styles, building many homes quickly as possible was the goal. So, like, for example, the, maybe the fourth ripple, you start to see more developments with maybe two to three or four different floor plans out in the suburbs.

Christian: [15:33] Mm-hmm. Yeah, they'd build, you know, 80 to a couple hundred homes in a whole area. Build as many homes as they possibly could. This happened all over the suburbs,

Speaker 5: [15:43] um- As large and as cheaply as they possibly can.

Christian: [15:45] Yes, exactly.

Speaker 5: [15:46] And oftentimes you can tell just by looking at it.

Christian: [15:49] Yes, yes.

Reed: [15:50] Yeah, so that kind of covers everything land area-wise, and as we move into the 2000s, most of the travel corridors, those areas were already developed by the end of the 20th century. So designs took a turn away from their more traditional predecessors and launched into the post-modern, more artistically, architecturally-minded homes that- You might see under construction today if you're looking at a single family home that is either being totally remodeled or, or a new construction.

Speaker 5: [16:25] I was just gonna say, I feel like modern and post-modern have some differences. Like we've got-

Reed: [16:29] Definitely … Speaker 5: yeah, we've got a lot of Northwest contemporary, you know, that, which is kind of its own style. It's, you know, very clean lines- Mm-hmm … very geometric. Uh, a lot of people would say futuristic, but with a lot of, like, natural influences, lots of wood, lots of stone in certain styles of it, but, a- and then really blocky houses and other iterations of it. With post-modern- Yeah … kind of being a little bit more, you know-

Christian: [16:55] Industrial almost.

Speaker 5: [16:57] Yeah.

Reed: [16:57] Yeah. So we do kind of have those, you know, really specifically modern, almost box or minimalist style homes. And then we have the, uh, the Northwest Modern, the Pacific Northwest modern style, which as Nick is saying, is a little bit more, I would call it almost like a modern cabin style or something like that.

Speaker 5: [17:20] Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Reed: [17:21] It's, it's a very unique style to the Pacific Northwest, and it refers to, um, sleek lines, sometimes a flat roof, but honestly, oftentimes sort of a nod to that cabin-y A-frame style roof as well. Mm-hmm. Open floor plans, lots of glass, but, you know, with that Pacific Northwest flare that nods to natural materials. Maybe it's gonna be s- stone, untreated wood, um- A lot of earth tones. And this style of home, I think, kind of highlights the Northwest's wild beauty in both the outside to a neighbor as well as inside for the homeowner. And since a lot of the neighborhoods that we've already discussed were very well-established by the turn of the 21st century, you'll find these sometimes, you know, slightly different, more boundary-pushing homes interspersed alongside more traditional homes from all of these earlier areas in pretty much any neighborhood across Seattle where somebody's decided to build a n- a newer Pacific Northwest modern.

Speaker 5: [18:23] Yeah, I see a lot of them in some of the, what would maybe be thought of as a more, uh, expensive neighborhoods like Magnolia- Yes Exactly … and stuff. Yeah. Um- Mm-hmm … uh, but then also there's a lot of them, at least as far as I've seen, I haven't been to Bainbridge Island a lot, but on Bainbridge Island, I've- Oh,

Reed: [18:39] yeah

Speaker 5: [18:40] I've seen a lot, uh, just from when I've been there.

Christian: [18:42] And I would also say you'll see those anywhere that you can have a view of the water. Oh,

Reed: [18:48] yeah.

Christian: [18:48] Oh, yeah. 100%. That's, in Seattle, that's 100% where you're gonna find those.

Reed: [18:51] Yeah, West Seattle, like along Alki you'll see those.

Christian: [18:54] Yep.

Reed: [18:55] Uh, yeah.

Christian: [18:55] Really just anywhere. True. Like Northeast Seattle looking over Lake Washington. Oh, yeah. Same with on the east side, like any- anywhere that you're on a slope- Mm-hmm, yeah … with a view, that's where you often see that Northwest contemporary style.

Speaker 5: [19:08] Mm-hmm. Uh, yeah. Yeah, and then so but then beyond just the, the sleek and modern design homes, though, uh, a lot of the newer dwellings have elements that have been pulled from all sorts of different styles that have been popular throughout our city's timeline. So s- some of the newer, uh, architects will borrow a lot from craftsman styles. That's the one I see the most often. You know, and, and some of them there's actually, there's actually some people trying to revive the Seattle box in different places. But yeah, obviously craftsmen bungalows. Then all over the country people have been building kind of like ranch house looking things that have also been really popular here that are just kind of painted white, like, all over on the outside. And then kind of have sort of a, a ranch vibe to them. And then inside they, you know, there's a lot of, like, black and white, um- Mm-hmm … contrast, um, gives it kind of a light and airy feel. Uh, yeah, there's a lot of that around the country and in Seattle as well. But we, we see a lot of craftsman bungalows, Victorians. Well, not a lot of Victorians, but things that borrow from- Mm-hmm … Victorians sometimes with, you know, turrets. I feel like I see more, more of those turrets and stuff- Further out of the city in lots of those-

Reed: [20:26] I agree … Speaker 5: tract developments.

Speaker 4: [20:28] Yep.

Speaker 5: [20:29] Um, but yeah, it's, it's really, it's really cool though, uh, to see d- r- homes recently that have been designed, um, and crafted to fit within the existing neighborhood. There's a f- there's also some that are strategically built to stand out. You know, there's … In the 1980s actually, they built a, a row of, uh, Victorians, kind of the Northgate, Aurora, Licton Springs area. Yep. Um, right across from North Seattle College actually. And I know that's- Yeah … a little bit, that's a little bit further back, but yeah, there's, there's, you know, efforts occasionally to build, uh, things in more- Mm-hmm unique styles.

Reed: [21:06] Yeah. Something intentional.

Christian: [21:08] Mm-hmm.

Speaker 5: [21:09] And a lot of Spanish villas even, believe it or not.

Christian: [21:11] Yeah. Yeah. Just north of Green Lake especially, there's a little cluster of those.

Speaker 5: [21:16] Mm-hmm. Over there. And in Broadview and in Queen Anne and Magnolia. Mm-hmm. All sorts of places. You'll see them typically a little further out, again, from, from downtown. A few ripples out, but-

Christian: [21:26] Mm-hmm … yeah.

Speaker 5: [21:27] But there's even some in Queen Anne though, like I said.

Speaker 4: [21:29] Mm-hmm.

Christian: [21:30] Yeah. So thanks for listening everybody. I hope that this helped to explain where and why Seattle has different architecture. I know for my wife, who was not from Seattle originally, she wanted a Craftsman, but she also wanted to be in Viewridge. It's just not possible. Uh, View Ridge was not built until the '50s, and Craftsmans weren't being built then. They were mid-century moderns. And so this is why you probably can't find sometimes in specific neighborhoods the home that you specifically want, because it just wasn't offered then. It just wasn't built, being built then. Um, and hopefully this kind of laid that groundwork for you in your mind to visualize, you know, as the city spread, these ripples like we talked about from downtown being the core are going to the south, going to the north, because we are, you know, we got water on both sides with lakes in between as well So it's a, it's a pretty unique city. It's pretty awesome how we have expanded and, and where we have expanded. So, uh, thank you everyone on the team. You guys were awesome today. Really appreciate it. And if you're, you, the listener, want to learn more or you are specifically looking for a home style, we are here to help. That's what we do. We are real estate agents. We love to teach people about different Seattle history, different Seattle architecture, the home buying process, the home selling process. Like, we just love to educate. That is our whole goal here at the Awesome Nossum group. So if that appeals to you and you would like to chat with us, we are totally free to talk to. We do not charge you money to chat with us. You can reach out to us right from our website, which is AwesomeNossumGroup.com, and you can always schedule a time to chat with us right there on our website. Quick and easy buttons connect right with us. And that's it for this episode of the Awesome Seattle Podcast. We will talk to you next time.

Speaker 5: [23:31] Bye. Bye.