Seattle’s Oldest House

The honor of being Seattle’s oldest house officially belongs to The Ward House at 1423 Boren. But there have been and are other contenders.

In May 1985, The Weekly concluded that the Ward House at 1423 Boren built in 1882 by pioneer entrepreneur George W. Ward was Seattle’s oldest surviving residential structure. The structure had stood vacant since 1974 and was slated for demolition at its existing site. Historic Seattle acquired the Ward house by donation from Dr. and Mrs. Michael Buckley.  On April 6, 1986, David Leen and Bradford Moore, working with Historic Seattle, relocated the structure to the corner of East Denny Way and Belmont Avenue. 
The lovingly restored Ward House with its scalloped singles scraped and repainted, new roof and impressive Italianate tower now houses the law offices of Leen & O’Sullivan. Leen sank nearly $200,000 into moving and renovating the 77-ton Ward House, removing lead pipes, 40 tons of waterlogged plaster, and 25 layers of wallpaper in some places.  Details of the restoration are at the law firm’s website.  The Ward House is listed in the National Register of Historic Places, and gained official City of Seattle Landmark status on December 13, 1976, nearly 10 years before its restoration.

According to the Seattle Room’s Northwest Index, the oldest building in Seattle would probably have been the McGilvra homestead at Madison Park which was built in 1864.  We know this because the index points us to an article which appeared in the Seattle Times on  February 26, 1928.  Alas, the McGilvra homestead burned on August 15 or 16, 1933. 

The West Seattle Historical Society has a candidate for the City’s oldest house in a small residence on 64th Ave near the water.  However, due to much reconstruction and remodeling there are few remaining indicators of this house’s age. Despite “hand-forged hardware and other subtle clues,” it appears that no one has done the research to determine the actual age of the house.

It seems logical the Denny Cabin would be the oldest residence in Seattle but it must be disqualified on 2 counts.  The existing Denny Cabin was built in 1889 – 7 years after The Ward House. And it was built as an office for David Denny’s real estate business not as a residence. The Denny Cabin was moved to Federal Way in 1966 as part of the now defunct Heritage Village Shopping mall. The original Denny Cabin was demolished in the Fall of 1892.

Another Northwest Index entry dated, November 1984, states that neither the Seattle Office of Urban Conservation, Historic Seattle Preservation and Development Authority, the Seattle Public Library’s History Department, GRA Library nor the Museum of History and Industry Library could identify the oldest building still standing in Seattle.  That seems like a fairly definitive statement.  At least for now.

You can read more about Seattle’s historic architecture, vanishing and being resoted at Vintage Seattle. Jess Cliffe’s wonderful blog chronicle’s Seattle’s building through historic and modern photographs, postcards, advertisements and anything else Jess can find to document Seattle’s brick and mortar past.
~ Brenda T