| Historic Name: |
Tripple, Robert, Residence |
Common Name: |
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| Style: |
American Foursquare |
Neighborhood: |
Capitol Hill |
| Built By: |
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Year Built: |
1902 |
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| Significance |
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This early example of the Classic Box house was featured in the December 20, 1902 edition of The Argus newspaper, which has a paean to the simplicity of this new style, in contrast to the Victorian and Queen Anne styles: "Among the many beautiful homes lately built on Capitol Hill, the one shown above is a notable example of the beauty and dignity of simplicity and elegance. Cultured taste recognizes in its complete harmony of detail, graceful lines and broad surfaces an unquestioned elegance. Contrasted with examples of architecture that rely upon startling effects of color and outline to attract attention, this building affords a most pleasing relief."
The house was also noted in the city’s 1979 survey of historic resources, which said that it was was designed by architect Henry Dozier in 1909. The original owner was Robert Tripple; in 1937 it was owned by Willard A. Strange, a clerk at North Cost Transportation Company. Recent owners have made some alterations, including extending the eaves (1965), replacing the detached garage with a basement garage, adding new dormers on the west side and expanding the east dormers.
Henry Dozier (b. 1855), a Mississippi native, first practiced architecture in Denver, where he designed residences and commercial buildings, including the White Pass & Yukon Railroad depot (1900) in Skagway, AK. He practiced in Seattle from 1901 to 1909. His designs include the Pacific Hospital (1904) and the H. H. Dearborn house, a city landmark. His place and date of death are unknown.
This part of Capitol Hill has the city’s greatest concentration of American Foursquare houses—often called the Classic Box or Seattle Box, because of its local popularity. They were built primarily between 1905 and 1910. This one is unusual in having been designed by an architect, as most were built by local builders from patterns purchased from magazines. There are typically eight main rooms on two floors--living room, hall, dining room and kitchen downstairs and four bedrooms upstairs. Projecting bays at the corners, as seen here, are considered particularly unique to Seattle. Two reasons for the popularity of the fomr were that it provided a large amount of space for reasonable cost, and that it could be personalized depending on an owners taste and budget. This one is quite elaborate, with extensive use of leaded glass.
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| Appearance |
| This Classic Box has the typical hipped-roof form with hipped dormers on the front and sides. The recessed porch is on the south side of the main (west) façade, flanked by two wood columns, with a third column at the southwest corner next to the cutaway bay. Most windows throughout have leaded glass, in a diamond pattern, on the upper sections. The second floor has a projecting window at each corner; these bays pierce the eaves and are supported by a series of small curved brackets. Centered between them is a pair of small leaded glass windows. On the north elevation is a shallow curved bay with five windows with stained glass transoms. The rear elevation has an enclosed sunroom or sleeping porch with windows with diamond-paned transoms. Cladding is brick on the first story and stucco on the upper levels. |
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| Status: |
Yes - Inventory |
| Classication: |
Building |
District Status: |
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| Cladding(s): |
Brick, Stucco |
Foundation(s): |
Concrete - Poured |
| Roof Type(s): |
Hip |
Roof Material(s): |
Asphalt/Composition-Shingle |
| Building Type: |
Domestic - Single Family |
Plan: |
Rectangular |
| Structural System: |
Balloon Frame/Platform Frame |
No. of Stories: |
two |
| Unit Theme(s): |
Architecture/Landscape Architecture |
| Integrity |
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Changes to Plan: |
Slight |
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Changes to Original Cladding: |
Slight |
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Changes to Windows: |
Slight |
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| Major Bibliographic References |
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Polk's Seattle Directories, 1890-1996.
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Shaping Seattle Architecture: A Historical Guide to the Architects. Jeffrey Karl Ochsner, ed. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1994.
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King County Tax Assessor Records, ca. 1932-1972.
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City of Seattle, Department of Planning and Development, Microfilm Records.
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