Preserving history and getting the best bang for the real-estate buck seem to be going head-to-head on an architectural battleground in Queen Anne.
But while old housing isn't always making room for new construction, the redevelopment option is taking the lead, according to three recent examples.
For instance, four luxury "residences" are going in at 222 W. Highland Dr., where the J.C. Black mansion once stood. The historic Gable House at Highland and Queen Anne Avenue is being marketed as a $8.75 million tear-down, and a couple who live at 120 Prospect St. held a belated 100th birthday party for their restored home just last weekend.
Gone
The demolition of the 1914-era Black mansion across from Kerry Park in January 2004 came as an unpleasant surprise to many in the neighborhood, but owner Kenneth Woolcott told the press at the time that he wanted to build a new house on the prime-view lot and live in it with his wife and child.
That plan has changed in one significant way, according to a press release from Six Degrees Capital, Woolcott's real-estate-development company.
Instead of one house, the plans call for building four "luxury residences" in two stacks of two. The press release adds that the project will be "an important and valuable addition to the Queen Anne Community."
The units will vary in size from 1,800 to 3,500 square feet, each will include two or more underground parking places, and they all start out at $1.95 million just for the shell, according to the project Web site (www.222WestHighland.com).
"Ken's certainly excited about it (the project)," said Mark Angelillo from Six Degrees Capital. Woolcott hasn't made a decision yet, but he is leaning toward the idea of living in one of the units, according to Angelillo.
And given the superheated housing market in Seattle, the price has not proved to be an obstacle to would-be buyers. "There's some very interested folks," is how Angelillo put it.
Going
Meanwhile, two blocks down the street at 1 W. Highland Dr., the 1904-era Treat House apartment building is up for sale. According to the "ek Real Estate Group," which is marketing the property also known as the Gable House, the price tag is $8.75 million. That's up from $8 million listed in an earlier sales brochure.
The brochure notes the building is currently a residential income property, but "its ultimate value can be realized by the buyer with the vision, nerve and style to create Seattle's paramount luxury condominium."
Historic preservationists were caught flat-footed when the Black mansion was suddenly torn down early last year, but the Queen Anne Historical Society doesn't plan on making the same mistake in this case, according to the group's former president, Bruce Jones.
The society is going to submit a draft nomination form to the city's Landmarks Preservation Board this week, he said of efforts to have the Treat House declared a historic landmark.
Jones believes the building should qualify for landmark status. The death of the owner, Henry Whitney Treat, made front page news at the time, he said, adding that the house itself was also mentioned in the coverage.
"At the time it was built, it was the largest house in Seattle," Jones added. At a price of $110,000, it was also the most expensive in an age when other homes on Highland Drive were selling for $20,000 to $30,000, he said.
The Landmarks Board is already aware of the tear-down plans, according to historic preservation officer Karen Gordon, who wrote owner Edward Krigsman about the issue in May.
Gordon wrote that she had been contacted by several people interested in buying the property, which she noted is being marketed "as if it were a site with no building."
However, Gordon added, a recent preservation board survey of Upper Queen Anne "has indicated that the building appears to be eligible for both inclusion in a local historic district, as well as for city of Seattle landmark status."
Jan Hadley is in a Queen Anne group that submitted a proposal to the city last December to turn an area roughly bounded by Queen Anne Avenue, Marshall Park, Comstock Street and Prospect Street into a historic district. "The city is still reviewing it," she said, adding that both the mayor and the city council have to approve of the designation.
Krigsman did not return a call to the News by deadline, but Gordon said she got a phone call from him asking about the designation process. She insisted that the landmarks board will focus on whether the building meets the criteria for landmark status. But Gordon also noted that landmark status doesn't necessarily mean the building can't be torn down.
Staying
Tearing a 1904-era Georgian colonial house down was never an option when Burt and Ralene Walls bought the building at 120 Prospect Street back in 1983. "We bought it as a project," Ralene said of the six-bedroom, five-bathroom home and its separate coach house.
And quite a project it was. "It had had a pretty hard life, and it was in pretty bad shape," she said. The wiring on the second floor was shot, the plumbing was in bad shape, shag carpeting covered "beautiful hardwood floors" and the house was covered in aluminum siding, Ralene said.
The siding covered a multitude of sins, according to Burt. "You could see hatchet marks," he said of sections where the original moldings had been hacked off in the 1960s. "We hired a (full-time) carpenter for a year just to do the repairs," he said.
Burt is an electrician, and the couple did a lot of the interior work themselves. However, the Walls said they didn't apply for landmark status for the home. That's because they didn't want to be held to the original design standards.
The couple did make an effort to reproduce most of the details by consulting an archival photograph of the original house. That involved having some of the trim and molding specially milled by using remnants of the original woodwork as a template, Burt said.
The Walls celebrated the completion of the siding work in 1997. "We had a period costume party," said Burt, who added that the couple hired two horse-and-carriage outfits to ferry guests to the party from parking places on Bigelow Avenue North.
The couple also had a party for the house on June 18. It was ostensibly a belated 100th birthday bash and pay-back party that was prompted by the recent return of a stained-glass window and two beveled, leaded-glass windows that had been part of the original construction.
The beveled-glass windows originally framed the front door, and the stained-glass window of four roses had been located on a stairway landing to the second floor, Ralene said. "And we didn't even know about these windows," she added.
But Alan West - a former resident of the house - did, because he took them with him when he moved out in 1972 after spending more than a decade in the home, he said. "And in each house we moved into, we'd find a place to put them," West added.
West said his family had recently moved into a Mt. Vernon condo that doesn't have room for the windows, but that's not the reason he returned them. Explaining that he is a religious man, West said: "The Lord was speaking to me about returning these windows."
The Halls were astounded by West's gesture. "I wanted to pay him for them," Ralene said. But that didn't happen. West said the divine message included instructions not to charge the Halls any money for the windows' return. "I took a lot of guff from my family (about that)," West said. "They're quite valuable, but it was the right thing to do."
The windows have been back in their original locations for a few months, Ralene said. "It was a priceless gift he gave to us," she added. But faced with West's refusal to take any money for the windows, the Halls came up with another way to thank him: they threw a party.
And that was perfectly all right with West, he said during a break between telling partygoers the story of some pricey windows that are back home again after more than 30 years.
Staff reporter Russ Zabel can be reached at rzabel@nwlink.com or 461-1309.[[In-content Ad]]
