Landmarks board to consider 1963 City Light building on Queen Anne

Posted on by Nicole Demers-Changelo

Futuristic design echoes World’s Fair aesthetic

In 1963, Seattle City Light built the Power Control Center, a modernist-style steel-reinforced concrete structure that has remained on Lower Queen Anne even as the neighborhood has changed.

But as new development gobbles up property, Nicole Demers-Changelo worries the oddly shaped relic could also be lost.

Demers-Changelo is an architect and transplant from New York, and has taken a liking to the former utility building. It’s not sleek like the current modern architecture. It’s more of a type, she said, a building that expresses the modern post-World War II ideal of showing its strength against the outside world. …Continue reading “Landmarks board to consider 1963 City Light building on Queen Anne” →

Stimson-Griffiths House – 405 W Highland Drive

Posted on by Queen Anne Historical Society
Stimson-Griffith House, 1905
Stimson-Griffiths House, 1905

Frederick Spencer Stimson was the manager of the Stimson Mill in Ballard and with his brother C.D. Stimson prospered in the lumber business. Fred bought this property on West Highland Drive with a dramatic view of the harbor and began planning an equally substantial house for his family. He liked the English style, as did his neighbors Albert S. Kerry, Harry W. Treat and Charles H. Black. All these men went shopping for an architect and chose Charles Bebb, who designed this three-story house with stucco and half-timbered upper floors rising above a fortress-like stone ground floor punctuated by shingled bays on the south side. The cross-gabled roof with overhanging eaves terminate in decorative truss verge-boards. Notice the second floor sleeping balcony in the old photo which was popular and considered healthy at the time. Besides the impressive oak entrance foyer and drawing room there are a ballroom, billiard room and a sunroom. …Continue reading “Stimson-Griffiths House – 405 W Highland Drive” →

Polson House: All in the (almost one) Family

Posted on by Michael Herschensohn

Perry and Kate Polson’s house at 103 Highland Drive is simply exceptional. The Polsons and their descendants owned and occupied the house that hovers high over Highland Drive’s intersection with First Avenue North from 1908 to 2004. In those 96 years, the family loved the house, and however they altered it, they never jeopardized the views to the city, Elliott Bay and the Olympic Mountains. Consequently, they left us one of the best preserved residences in the city whose new owners, Rosemary and Ken Willman, have done a major and meticulous restoration since buying the house in 2011. …Continue reading “Polson House: All in the (almost one) Family” →