There are many historic houses in Seattle, many of which would never qualify for any historic register. Nonetheless, a lot of people are interested in the history of the house or apartment building they live in, and want to know more. Some people just want a historic photograph, which are pretty easy to come by in Seattle thanks to a Depression-era comprehensive survey, now housed in Bellevue at the Puget Sound Regional Archives. (Call 425-564-3940 for additional information.) Some people, however, want to know more.

A number of local archives help residents research their old houses. The Seattle Public Library's web page on this topic is fairly thorough and directs visitors to a number of places where photographs and information can be found. While the overview is helpful for those preparing a landmark nomination, the information is fairly general and does not explain how one might interpret the information to understand the history of an ordinary building.

Ordinary People

Peri Muhich, Historic Seattle's volunteer coordinator and operations administrator, is a genealogist and expert on the Mercer Girls (a group of women from Massachusetts who came to Seattle right after the Civil War thanks to the efforts of Asa Mercer). Her screen saver reflects this interest in significant but understated history. It's a quote from Mark Twain: "History, although sometimes made up of a few acts of the great, is more often shaped by the many acts of the small." This is especially true of local history.

The "movements" of the 1960s and early 1970s broke open the traditional field of academic history. As conventions were being questioned left and right, so were the interpretations of the past printed as truth in our textbooks. New ways of interpreting history and new subjects for historical study came to the fore. Women's history, worker's history, history of subcultures and ethnic groups long omitted from general histories were generated by this relatively new, inclusive view of the past.

Methods for interpreting this long-invisible history presented a challenge for writers and scholars interested in bringing these histories to light. Writing a biography of a prominent political figure entails sifting through scores of letters, official documents, photographs, interviews, and already-published histories. Writing a biography of an ordinary person, or their house, is an altogether different exercise. Problems faced by academics are very similar to the problems faced by the layperson interested in understanding not only the history, but also the "story" of their house. Hard information is scant. How do you interpret the history of ordinary buildings?

Methods 101

One of the first courses graduate students of history take is "Methodology." Students of exalted histories and ordinary histories take this course. You don't need a master's degree to get the basic points. There are many ways to cut and slice history to make it into a cohesive narrative and interpretation rather than reportage, that is, the equivalent of an encyclopedia entry.

This overview will focus on interpreting the history of buildings, and condenses much information. Lorraine McConaghy, historian with the Museum of History and Industry, conducts classes on researching and interpreting local history. Anyone interested in digging deeper into our local past should sign up for one or more of her workshops.

Forensic Report

Interpreting vernacular architecture is slightly different than researching and interpreting local history because architectural history, unlike a lot of other historical specialties, has a physical presence that can be analyzed and interpreted. Some architectural historians treat formal analysis (formal meaning the form of a building) like an art historian focused on stylistics or "hand" of the artist. This basic but important way of looking at buildings breaks down the physical elements of a building into its primary forms and uses this "data set" to compare the subject with other similar or dissimilar subjects.

For "high style" buildings, like Pioneer Square's Pioneer Building (1889), the way the building looks helps architectural historians make sense of it. Its style and internal layout are like the style and floor plans of commercial buildings built throughout the country (especially the West and Midwest), around the same time. One interpretation of the significance of the building is this relationship between a regional or national stylistic trend, and the specific building. The Pioneer Building is a good local example of Richardsonian Romanesque.

For average buildings, like a Beacon Hill bungalow, someone could hang history on the style as well. There are a number of books on the bungalow form and what it means. A number of "field guides" to architectural history help the beginner understand what elements make up a recognized style.

The Meaning of Style

Does style really mean anything? Many architectural historians believe it does. The assumption underlying this idea is that architecture is a commonly understood language. This language, when using traditional, historical styles and elements, is centuries or sometimes millennia old. Emerging cultures and nations, nations seeking to identify themselves with key periods in the past - such as ancient Greece or Rome - have recycled the styles of these historic periods. England (for a time) and Germany (for a time) looked to their medieval roots as a way of distinguishing themselves as a distinct nation, with its own architectural language. If you're interested in the relationship between style and meaning, a good place to start is Alan Gowens Styles and Types of North American Architecture, and the series American Buildings and Their Architects by William H. Pierson and William Harvey.

Work Related History

The history of labor in Seattle is woven through any comprehensive history of the place. As a port and reliant upon area industries such as timber, coal, Boeing, and more recently, Microsoft, how a community makes a living and the history of its architecture are inextricably bound.

In 50 years, local architectural historians will probably think of the late 20th and early 21st century as a period of "mansioning" tendencies - the average home has gotten larger than it ever has been, and tech wealth has produced enormously costly, wired homes both in Seattle and in the surrounding area. The history of everyday houses, small bungalows, and cottages is also affected by this environment. Many of Seattle's traditionally "blue collar" neighborhoods, like parts of West Seattle, Eastlake, Madrona, Leschi, and Madison Valley, are being purchased and renovated by a different economic class of property owner.

Census records demonstrate how a neighborhood's demographics change over time. You can check out local census reports from 1930 and earlier at the local National Archives branch, located on Sand Point Way. You'll need a name to check the census records to direct you to a specific house. To find the name of the person or persons living in your house before 1930, let you fingers do the walking. The Seattle Public Library has a set of historic phone books, as does the University of Washington's Special Collections Library.

Both the phone book (also called a city directory) and the census provide a surprising amount of information about ordinary people. Older phone books sometimes list the race and occupation of each entry. The census records will tell you how many people were living in your house, whether they rented or owned, state or nation of birth, and occupation. This is especially useful for rural properties for which there is very little written history. In census records for non-urban areas, a researcher can learn a lot about the character of anonymous places.

Census takers used to walk from house to house, gathering information. Their hand written ledgers evidencing this tally are photographed and reproduced on microfilm as part of the census record. The complexion of a street illustrates itself through common facts. The history of Pioneer Square, for instance, is told from a worker's perspective, from the 1890 to 1920 census records. In Pioneer Square, most residents were tenants of boarding houses, apartments, and hotels. The census records for Pioneer Square are exceptionally rich with information about a significant but anonymous group of laborers who worked downtown. For each apartment building, often named in the margins, a researcher can see how many men lived in the same building, how old they were at the time of the survey, what they did for a living, and where they were from. The same is true for Belltown tracts.

Everyday Interiors

What if you're not as interested in the interpretation of your house, but rather want to rehabilitate the interior to look more like it did originally. A lot of "remuddled" interiors are too far-gone to restore, in a purist sense. Local residents in the process of fixing past decorating tragedies call Historic Seattle often, wanting to know how to fix them. Although there are a number of local experts who can help, there is a place anyone can go to get good ideas.

The University of Washington keeps runs of interiors magazines, dating back about 100 years in some cases, among its periodicals in Suzzallo Library. Magazines such as House and Garden and Good Housekeeping are available in the stacks. All home decorating magazines are in the same place. These magazines, like their modern equivalents, are as much advertising as content. Home remodelers can see how their 1912 bathroom might have originally looked for all faucets, wash basins and tubs advertised were drawn or photographed in an ordinary bathroom of the period. Same goes for kitchens and closets.

These resources help owners of older homes understand how their property was originally marketed. Many local bungalows and cottages were purchased directly from a catalogue distributor like Sears. SoDo's Starbuck's Center was the historic Sears Catalogue Warehouse where a lot of local homes were stored before distribution to local neighborhoods. Reproductions of these catalogue "kit" houses are widely available.

One of my favorite books on the story of everyday buildings is Stewart Brand's How Buildings Learn (Penguin, 1994). One of the great things about Brand's view of a building's history, is that it is ongoing. Additions and alterations are all a part of the meaning of the place. The idea makes the home remodeler a joint author in a story that began when the building was brand new. No method of architectural history could be more inclusive.

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