NRHP Reference # 72001277 Area 1,214 m² Added to NRHP 16 March 1972 | Designated SEATL December 13, 1976 Architectural style Victorian architecture | |
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Location 520 E. Denny Way
Seattle, Washington Similar Benaroya Hall, Terry Pettus Park, Shilshole Bay, Alaska Building, Moore Theatre | ||
The Ward House is a house on Capitol Hill in Seattle, Washington. Having been built in 1882, it is one of the oldest houses in Seattle. Existing houses reportedly built before 1882 in Seattle include the following: 2629 East Aloha Street (1881), 727 28th Avenue (1870), and Maynard's House located at 3045 64th Avenue Southwest (Approximately 1860 ± 2 years) .
The building, originally at 1427 Boren Avenue, was designed, built, and originally owned by George W. Ward. In 1962, architect Victor Steinbrueck wrote of it, "…this fanciful example of residential Victorian carpenter Gothic, one of the most interesting and apparently sound of the rare few remaining… could be made delightfully attractive by sympathetic preservation…"
Nonetheless, it became vacant in 1974 and was scheduled for demolition in the mid 1980s. The owners, Dr. and Mrs. Michael Buckley, donated the structure to Historic Seattle, a nonprofit architectural preservation organization chartered as a public development authority by the city. Historic Seattle in turn sold it to David Leen, a local lawyer, for $7,500. On April 6, 1986, Leen moved the Ward House from its First Hill lot on Boren Avenue between Union and Pike Streets to its current location at the corner of E. Denny Way and Belmont Avenue E. It is currently occupied by his law offices.
Besides being listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the building is also an official City of Seattle landmark.