CHAPTER 6:  DEVELOPMENT HISTORY

 

Each of the four streets in the study area has a unique character and development history, reflecting in its own way the history of the entire area recounted above.  Each is discussed separately below, giving an indication of the timing and intensity of development, the type of structures and the overall character of the street.  The apartment structures themselves are discussed in more detail in Chapter 8.

 

Queen Anne Avenue North

Queen Anne Avenue North is the spine of the study area and the main route to the residential and commercial areas on top of the hill.  It has always been the major traffic artery with cable cars, buses, cars and the resulting noise.  The steep slope precluded commercial development, but multifamily development has flourished since the turn of the century because of the easy access to transit. 

 

Early records and photos show the hillside lined by large homes, from simple Box styles to some of Seattle's most elaborate mansions.  A 1904 bird's eye view illustration showed heavy development up to Prospect Street, with houses scattered up the steeper part of the slope; past Lee Street, where the hill flattens out, the street was solidly lined with homes.^[21]  At the bottom of the Counterbalance stood the mansion of Charles Kinnear; at the top was one of the grandest houses, that built by Harry Whitney Treat at Highland Drive, which remains today as apartments.  Several others remain near Galer Street, but only one is still a single family residence.  As traffic and noise increased, the street became less desirable for single family homes, and apartments became more numerous.

 

The Kinnear mansion was featured in Homes and Gardens of the Pacific Coast in 1913, which said that the house "occupies a commanding position on Queen Anne Hill, with one of the finest views of the city, Sound and mountains.  The grounds are very extensive and well laid out,... a miniature park in itself."^[22]

  Several large trees from these gardens remain in front of Bayview Manor, the 10-story retirement home that replaced the Kinnear residence in 1959.  Other remnants of the gardens have recently been replaced by a new addition to the facility.

 

Queen Anne Avenue was the first street in the area to see significant multifamily development.  Before World War I it was the center of growth for the study area; six multifamily buildings were built between 1906 and 1913.  Five more were added during the 1920s.  The street's dense single family development and its steep topography affected the size and shape of buildings.  Most were close to the street, with very little landscaping.  Courtyards were typically small or non-existent.

 

At the time of World War II the street was a mixture of moderate-sized apartment buildings (9 to 37 units) and large single family structures, many of which were converted to multifamily use over the years.  The post-war building boom led to significant changes.  The first structures, such as those at Highland Drive, resembled the older ones in scale, and they often used Roman brick.  However, zoning changes in 1955 increased development.  High-rise and mid-rise buildings in modern styles proliferated, rapidly replacing homes and even a bungalow court built by Fred Anhalt.  Garages and parking lots became more conspicuous, and landscaping decreased, changing the appearance of the street significantly.

 

West Highland Drive

West Highland Drive has been one of Seattle's premier streets since its initial development.  A 1904 view shows only three houses in the first two blocks, with most houses clustered toward the west end, away from the arterial street, Queen Anne Avenue.  The street was initially lined with substantial wood-frame houses in the Queen Anne, Colonial or Box styles.  Especially on the south side, the larger lots were soon filled with more substantial mansions of stone and brick, most of which remain. 

 

Multifamily development is concentrated in the first three blocks west of Queen Anne Avenue.  The first apartment house on the street was the Victoria, built in 1921.  This was followed several years later by the Narada and the Parkview, across from Kerry Park, which is one of the city's most prominent viewpoints.  All three of these buildings are elegant brick structures whose units still bring premium prices.  

 

Two mansions at the east end of West Highland Drive are now apartments.  The Harry Whitney Treat house, at the corner of Queen Anne Avenue, was built in 1901, and was first used as apartments in 1922.  The Greek Revival-style Ballard mansion (1906) across the street was converted to apartments during World War II.  It narrowly escaped being replaced by a high-rise building in the 1970s.

 

In the 1960s-70s several large homes across from the Victoria were replaced by a new house and a 9-story condominium, very much out of scale with the neighborhood.  Attempts to duplicate this structure behind the Victoria were defeated in court.  This 1960s house was replaced in turn by a 6-story condominium in 1992; this small-scale building, faced with brick, is designed to be more compatible with neighboring structures.

 

West Olympic Place/Olympic Way West

West Olympic Place is the most atypical street in the study area.  It curves west from the base of the Counterbalance, around the Kinnear mansion site and along the side of the hill past Kinnear Park.  At that point it curves sharply northward, with the name changing to Olympic Way West. 

 

As George Kinnear had planned, the spectacular views and the presence of Kinnear Park and one of Seattle's first street car lines meant that the area developed quickly.  By 1904 the vicinity of the park was filled with substantial homes and gardens.  An example was the E.R. Butterworth house at 521 West Olympic Place, described as "a country gentleman's home" with extensive walks and driveways bordered with flowers.^[23]  More modest homes were interspersed throughout the area.

 

West Olympic Place was the location of some the city's earliest and most elegant apartment hotels and apartments.  Both the Chelsea Hotel and the Kinnear Apartments were built near the park in 1907, followed by the Delamar, a private hotel adjacent to the Kinnears' home.  Intensive development occurred in the 1920s, when eight buildings were added, ranging from several small block structures to the elegant Mediterranean-style Villa Costella. 

The 1930s brought a more subtle change in the streetscape, as large detached houses were converted into multifamily uses.  Many of these remain, such as the large Classical Revival structure sitting high above the street at 662 West Olympic Place.  Built in 1906, this was converted to three three-room apartments and one six-room unit in the 1930s.  These adaptations have allowed the street to retain some of its small scale buildings and gardens, while increasing density and making the properties more economically viable.

 

The 1955 re-zoning brought buildings as large as eight stories, and other dramatic changes.  Driveways and garages have had as great an impact as heights.  Skyline House, an award-winning 8-story concrete structure meets the street with massive concrete columns and a wide driveway.  At the east end of the street, the 8-story Queensborough towered over the Kinnear Mansion and the Delamar.  In 1959 the 10-story Bayview Manor replaced the Kinnear Mansion at the foot of the Counterbalance.  In 1971 the Seattle Housing Authority built a 9-story elderly housing project nearby.  More recently, smaller buildings have been built, scattered among the converted single-family structures.

 

West Roy Street

West Roy Street was the last part of the study area to develop significantly.  It was not directly on a car line, and, since it is near the bottom of the hill, its views are less spectacular and more easily obstructed.  The north side of the street has a steep slope, making construction of large buildings difficult.  

 

George Kinnear's mansion was in the middle of the wilderness when it was built in the early 1880s.  For years the house stood by itself while he planned the development of the surrounding area.  He filled in the surrounding swamp, naming the street after his son Roy, who was born in 1881.  However, he put most of his efforts into the high-value view properties on West Olympic Place.  An 1891 pictorial map shows West Roy Street dotted with single family homes, interspersed with large garden plots.^[24]  By 1904, a few more houses were scattered along the street, especially on the north side, but several blocks had only one house.

 

An early apartment building, the Ames, was built at the west end of the street in 1909.  It was a modest building with twelve two-room units, surrounded by detached houses.  It was demolished in the 1970s for a large condominium complex.

 

From the 1890s, or even earlier, the stretch of Queen Anne Avenue between Roy Street, and Mercer Street was a commercial center, with numerous grocers and other small businesses serving Queen Anne residents.  More intensive development occurred just before World War I.  The auditorium building which now houses ACT theater, at West Roy Street and 1st Avenue West, was built in 1912.  The Del Roy, a large apartment building with small units, was constructed near Queen Anne Avenue in 1914.  The same year, numerous small bungalows were built in the 200 and 300 blocks of West Roy Street, some of which still exist. 

 

Shortly after the war, a large mixed-use building and an adjacent garage, diagonally across Roy Street, was built.  The garage, called the Kuay Garage, was the largest in the city at the time, holding 200 cars.  The building contained the Seattle Engineering School, which opened in 1920 to train auto mechanics.  A few years later it became the Vance apartments and later the Marqueen.  Several other brick retail buildings and a large apartment building, Chandler Hall, were added in 1924-25.  A second group of bungalows, smaller than the earlier ones, was built on the south side of the street in 1925. 

 

However, the major change to the street was the group of Art Deco style buildings constructed between 1929 and 1931.  They occupy the entire area between West Roy and West Mercer streets and between 3rd and 5th avenues.  Most are similar in scale, form and appearance, with varied detailing, making a pleasing streetscape.  No further apartment development occurred until the 1950s, although a considerable number of detached houses were built here during the Depression.  During World War II the block between First and Second Avenue was filled with small detached houses, obviously fairly temporary in nature. 

 

Much of this was replaced in the rush of development during the 1950s-80s. The north side of the street is now lined with modern buildings of four to six stories, replacing the Ames and numerous single family homes.  A two-block long 5-story condominium occupies the north side between 4th Avenue West and the end of the street.  Queen Anne Square, a full-block development with office uses on the Mercer Street side, lies between 1st and 2nd avenues.  As on neighboring streets, curbcuts and garages have significantly changed the street's appearance.  However, several buildings have attractive landscaping and street trees.