Tag Archives: landmarks

No rush on new park for North Capitol Hill — no money to pay for it until 2029

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The property from above in the summer of 2022

Sorry for the late notice — we just found out about it, too

It is extremely late notice but apparently there is time.

Seattle Parks says a meeting it is holding Wednesday night to update the community on design plans for a new city park on 1.6 acres of North Capitol Hill land formerly owned by the Bullitt family will include a call for patience — it won’t have the funding it needs to complete the project until 2029 at the earliest.

Superintendent AP Diaz and the city’s parks and rec department are holding the meeting on the important updates for the planned park in one of the city’s wealthiest neighborhoods with little public notice. It didn’t send details to media about the meeting and didn’t post about it on its social media accounts.

CHS has asked officials what’s up with the oversight and for copies of the materials to be presented so we can share the details more widely. UPDATE: Technical difficulties! Sounds like there is an issue with email coming into CHS. We’re taking a look at what’s up. In the meantime, the city says it will post a recording from Wednesday’s meeting later this week.

The land and 69-year-old home on the property left to the city after the death of philanthropist Kay Bullitt stretches out on the northwest slopes of Capitol Hill in the prestigious Harvard-Belmont Landmark District. CHS reported in 2022 on the early planning for the new park project including a survey that planners said showed preferences for developing the new park land “as a quiet, contemplative place” while making space for the Cass Turnbull Garden as part of the site, a project from Seattle nonprofit Plant Amnesty honoring its late founder. Continue reading →

Seattle City Council set to decide on rezone approval for 16th Ave’s Conover House redevelopment

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(Image: Weinstein A+U)

Not a landmark: The Conover House (Image: City of Seattle)

For a 131-year-old house on Capitol Hill, a week here, a week there makes little difference.

But the 1893-built Conover House gained a few more days Tuesday when a small slip-up among the fresh faces of the newly seated Seattle City Council pushed back a key vote on the 16th Ave property that is destined to become home to a mixed-use building with dozens of new apartments above a new restaurant in a project from Jewish Family Service and its headquarters just down the street.

During Tuesday’s public comment in front of the first full meeting of the council in 2024, a diali-in speaker was mistakenly allowed to briefly speak against the proposed contract rezone of the Conover House property that would allow a proposed development that will include demolition of the historic but not landmarked house to move forward.

“Sadly, I’m here to testify in vain, a bit, to save a part of Seattle that is pretty much condemned to be destroyed and forgotten,” the speaker began.

Their impassioned plea for the Conover House was cut-off but the procedural damage was done.

Because the council’s role in the decision is to approve or disapprove of the city Hearing Examiner’s decision to approve the rezone, that short testimony against the change was a procedural no-no. President Sara Nelson and the council were left with no choice but to delay the vote for a week “to clear the ex parte communications” in the “quasi judicial matter.”

The decision to wait a week on the vote is likely delaying the inevitable. Continue reading →

The Bloch House is Capitol Hill’s latest landmark

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(Image: Marvin Anderson Architects)

The Blochs (Image: Marvin Anderson Architects)

The latest landmark on Capitol Hill will be a Tudor Revival style home that has stood on a corner across from Volunteer Park for more than 115 years.

The Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board last week voted to designate the Bloch House at 15th and Prospect for landmarks protections of the structure’s exterior “and portions of the interior that include: the entry vestibule, foyer, main staircase, dining room, living room, study, rathskeller, and ballroom.”

The board agreed the house is “associated in a significant way with a significant aspect of the cultural, political, or economic heritage of the community, City, state or nation” and “embodies the distinctive visible characteristics of an architectural style, or period, or a method of construction. The board also declared the structure worthy of protections as an example of “an outstanding work of a designer or builder” — Congratulations, Clayton D. Williams and Arthur Loveless.

By the way, you’ve probably enjoyed some of Arthur’s other work in the neighborhood. Continue reading →

Bullitt House moves forward in city landmarks process

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(Image: Seattle Parks)

The 1955-built A-frame style house at the center of the Capitol Hill historical district property lined up to become a new city park will be considered for landmarks protections that will shape how the structure will be utilized in the new public space.

Last week, the Seattle Landmarks Board unanimously moved the nomination of the Bullitt House forward in a 7-0 vote. Continue reading →

At center of property lined up for new Capitol Hill park, Bullitt House to be considered for landmarks protections

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As the process to turn the Bullitt property’s 1.6 acres of North Capitol Hill land into a city park slowly moves forward, the family’s 1955 A-frame house will be considered for landmarks protections.

Seattle’s Landmarks Preservation Board will consider the nomination of the Bullitt House on June 7th.

The land and 68-year-old home on the property left to the city after the death of philanthropist Kay Bullitt stretches out on the northwest slopes of Capitol Hill in the prestigious Harvard-Belmont Landmark District. Continue reading →

Not a landmark: The Olive Way Improvement Company building once home to Holy Smoke, Coffee Messiah, and In the Bowl

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The Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board agreed. The old, boarded-up auto row-era Capitol Hill building at the corner of E Olive Way and Denny is not a landmark.

The board voted seven to one Wednesday on a motion to deny the nomination of the property. CHS reported here on the nomination of the 1924-built Olive Way Improvement Company building, a formality in the process to redevelop the nearly 100-year-old complex that first rose as the street was being touted as an exciting new alternative connecting Capitol Hill to early 20th century downtown Seattle.

Wednesday’s vote will help clear the way for Guntower Capital, a holding company formed by executives at two Seattle-area real estate and development firms, to begin its plans. Past attempts to ask the company’s owners about its vision for the property have not been responded to. Continue reading →

Reminder: E Olive Way landmarks meeting — Plus, a history of protest not included in the nomination

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The corner in the 1970s

The Seattle Landmarks Board will take up the nomination of an unlikely Capitol Hill candidate for preservation Wednesday.

CHS reported here on the nomination for the auto row-era commercial property at 1550 E Olive Way and the corner of E Denny that is being presented as a formality in the process to redevelop the nearly 100-year-old complex. Continue reading →

This old Capitol Hill building is probably not a landmark

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From the report prepared by David Peterson Historic Resource Consulting

It may be the unlikeliest of the remaining major auto row-era structures on Capitol Hill to be considered, but the boarded-up, 1924-built Olive Way Improvement Company building lined up for a likely future of mixed-use redevelopment will get its day in front of the Seattle Landmarks Board.

A required nomination hearing for the nearly 100-year-old complex at the curving corner of E Olive Way and Denny will take place next Wednesday. The meeting will likely be prelude to a demolition, or, at least, a gutting.

CHS broke the news in January that Guntower Capital, a holding company formed by executives at two Seattle-area real estate and development firms, was in agreement to purchase the half acre or so property once home to a mix of businesses including the former In the Bowl, the departed Bus Stop bar and Coffee Messiah cafe and a sprawling dog lounge charred in a 2017 fire.

Its history, of course, goes back much further but the commercial building constructed by an Olive Way focused developer as a retail and automotive garage structure has seen better days.

Still, it has its auto row charms including massive heavy timber trusses, old brick walls, and some remaining decorative flourishes along the E Olive Way facing retail segment “clad in buff-colored field face brick with terra cotta ornamentation.” Continue reading →

Proposal would keep approval of small changes like signs and awnings on Seattle landmarks with city staff

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The Seattle City Council’s Neighborhoods, Education, Civil Rights, and Culture Committee Friday morning will discuss legislation from the mayor’s office that would keep approvals on small changes to designated landmarks in the hands of city staff. The proposal would keep in place changes made during the pandemic when meetings of groups including the historic review boards that typically hold the power were prohibited.

According to the committee presentation (PDF), the permanent change allows faster approval of necessary changes and repairs to landmark structures by Department of Neighborhoods staff while allowing boards and commissions to focus on more important business. Continue reading →

Dead body with stab wounds found in abandoned Prosch House, a First Hill landmark with a tragic history — UPDATE

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(Image: SPD)

Seattle Police say they are investigating after the body of a man with fatal stab wounds was found Wednesday night inside an abandoned historic First Hill structure burned in a fire earlier this month.

Police say a 911 caller reported finding the body just before 8 PM in the 9th Ave Prosch House.

The interior and structure of the 1900-era rooming house part of the landmarked German Club property was charred and damaged in a December 2nd fire that swept through the old house.

The house property has been fenced-off since the blaze but its owners have been cited repeatedly over the years by the city’s vacant buildings program for allowing squatters and trash to accumulate on the site. Continue reading →