History of a Home

Tom is selling his 1911 home over by Densmore and 39th and asked if a home could “sponsor” Wallyhood. The story and photos he sent provide a beautiful and fascinating snapshot history of Wallingford, so we hope you’ll forgive us the appearance of editorial / advertising conflict by sharing it in its entirety:

One Saturday a couple of years ago we were preparing a dinner for friends when the front doorbell rang. At the door was a gentleman in his fifties, with what appeared to be his son in his early twenties. He asked if we would mind if he took a few photos of the outside of our house. “I guess so. What for?” I asked.

He replied, “Because my father was born in your kitchen.” We invited him in and he gave us the history of the house, from the clearing of the land right up to when his grandmother converted it to a boarding house for GIs after the war.

The house was built in 1911 by his great-grandfather, Dr. Rowe France, the City of Seattle’s first coroner, who also built a house across the alley on Wallingford. Seattle was a pretty wild place in those days, where drunken squabbles often were resolved with violence, and the coroner was a very busy man.

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The doctor was fond of entertaining city officials and businessmen, which explained why the house has such an unusually large dining room and a back servant’s staircase to the second floor. During the teens, the house was the host of numerous formal dinners, salons, and musical performances.

What was less certain was why the house also had two staircases to the basement, one of which is formal width, and why the basement has such an open layout, unusual for the time. Our visitor had the answer.

It turned out that in addition to more traditional entertaining upstairs, the doctor built into the house an unusual feature: a firing range.

While there’s no trace of it now, it’s not hard to imagine. At one end were bales of hay, and at the other a lounge. According to his great-grandson, the house was a popular destination for prominent members of the police department and criminal justice system. They would bring whatever contraband had been confiscated recently, and relax with a few drinks and a few rounds.

This past summer, my wife learned more house history, when two retired Minnesota couples en route to an Alaskan cruise stopped by. They rented out the two front rooms from Dr. French’s daughter in the early 1950’s for $25 each a month. As their first apartments as married couples, with the guys working their first jobs out of the UW at Boeing, the house was full of fond recollections.

In the late fifties, the house was converted into a three-family, and like a lot of Wallingford houses in the seventies, the house fell into disrepair. In the eighties, a new owner built a huge two-car and workshop garage, then single-handedly restored the house to its original four-square floor plan. In the nineties, the next owner and beloved neighborhood family, finished the job, modernizing the kitchen and baths and digging out the basement to add another level.

Their daughter never fails to appear at Halloween, and our daughter says she will do the same. It’s the kind of house that makes good memories. We’re going to miss Wallingford.

Attached are photos of the house that were sent by Mark C., the visitor, and from the city. The ones with the people are Dr. France and his wife Katherine. The one with the little girl in the door is Mark’s grandmother.