wallyfarmhouse

After some searching through various King County websites, we were able to pull up this historical photo of our home. Not sure of the year this was taken, but other sources suggest that the county started getting its property records in order around 1937. Check out the parked car in the lower right corner! Also, notice that the curly molding in the upper left corner of the porch was broken in the same way that it is today.

From another source, we found this accounting of the previous owners, which is pretty great to have: “This structure may have been built earlier than 1900, the date of construction indicated in The King County Assessor Property Characteristics Report. The King County Property Record Card prepared in 1937 indicates that the house was erected in 1890. Nyberg and Steinbrueck assign the structure a date of c. 1890. The permit for construction of the original house has not yet been located. As a result, the original owner, designer and builder are not yet known. The property appears to have been owned by the estate of A. G. Wooster when it was surveyed by the Assessor’s office in 1937. Wooster had apparently acquired the property prior to 1925; by that date the resident of the house is listed as Kate D. Wooster,the widow Alfred G. Wooster in Polk’s Seattle Directory. The King County Property Record Card indicates that the structure had already been remodeled once by 1937. In that year, the house was clad with drop siding and fancy shingles. John N. Boge acquired the house in 1957. Boge made some modifications to the electrical system in 1972; these included increasing the electrical service to 200 amps. Boge sold the property to Genevieve C. Vayda in 1992. Although it appears the south end of the house may have been remodeled since that time, the City of Seattle has no record of this work. The structure is described by Nyberg and Steinbrueck as a building significant to the entire City of Seattle. Although the house appears to have been remodeled at least twice, the house is still significant as a surviving structure from the first decade of the Wallingford neighborhood’s development. The east, north and west elevations appear to be fairly intact and are able to convey the significance of the structure despite the modifications to the south end. This is a 1-1/2 story frame residence built over a full basement on a concrete foundation. The steep gabled roof with enclosed soffits, the hip roofed, wrap-around entry porch with slender wood supporting posts, the tall narrow wood windows, the corner casing boards and the mixed shingle and clapboard siding are all characteristics of the structure associated with late Queen Anne cottage design. The back end (south elevation) of the structure has been remodeled relatively recently and features a small but modern addition to the original building.”