Imagine what it was like when the house was new and McGraw Street was just a slippery dirt road. The area was thick with second growth trees and you were living out in the sticks. At the bottom of the hill was 24th N where a streetcar ran and the sidewalk was partially in place. It took you just 15 minutes to walk to the south gate of the Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition. On the way you crossed the new bridge over the Log Canal and you passed no other homes, only buildings associated with the Log Canal operations or some dilapidated buildings that sat between the canal and where Roanoke would be pressed up against the foot of Montlake Ridge. By 1912 the only addition was a single brick house at the corner of 22nd and Roanoke. Any kids living in Montlake who wanted to play in the woods didn’t have to go to the Ravine or the Arboretum. They just stepped outside of their front door and they were there.
1909 - UWDC -
SEA1402
When I was in grade school my friend Bennett Minton lived in that house and I was in it a few times. The front porch ran across the width of the house and around the southeast corner, Under the porch was a root cellar with an earthy smell and dusty wooden shelves holding glass canning jars. At the top of the stairs on the second floor was a landing with doors leading off in all directions to multiple bedrooms. It was a really cool house that seemed bright and airy but I only had my own Calhoun Street house to judge by.
In the 1930’s and early 1940’s the house was owned by Ruby
Burshia and five bedrooms were more than she needed so she rented them out as
room and board. My favorite ad was in
the August 22, 1940 edition of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer where she hoped
to attract male tenants with the draw being meals prepared by a French Chef. Classy.
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