The Oldest House in Montlake ~ NOT!

The Newman Residence located at 2209 E Howe St is named after Everett Newman who resided there in 1928. The house is credited in available records as having been built in 1902. Municipal records, Montlake Historic District documents, realtor websites, the works, all list 1902 as the build date. That makes it the oldest standing residence in Montlake, right? Not so fast! Before computers all records were handwritten and somewhere along the way those records were transcribed to some other media, again and again and again making transcription errors possible.

Consider:

• It stands on the steep hillside above E Blaine Street in a line of four other homes all built in 1912. Seems odd that someone would build the first house in Montlake, in 1902, on a difficult hillside on a street that wouldn't be platted until 1907.
• The house does not show on the Baist's Atlas for the years 1905, 1908 or 1912.
• It doesn't show up on the MOHAI image 1952.146.1 dated December 15, 1911, however, Boyer, Blaine and Howe Streets have been platted for four years and are evident in the photograph.

It doesn't show up until MOHAI image 1952.146.2 dated March 15, 1913

The earliest tax document from 1928 lists the build date as 1910.

Follow up records documenting remodel projects reference 1902 and 1912.  The house received its sewer connection along with the other four adjacent homes in 1912.

It is my opinion that the Newman Residence at 2209 E Howe was built in 1912 along with four adjacent homes.  At some point an entry error substituting a "0" for a "1" was made and it carried over into subsequent records.  That would make it somewhere between the 40th and 83rd oldest standing house in Montlake.  I don't know what the ramifications of not owning the oldest  house in Montlake might be but this ain't it.  

I think that the Reagh Residence at 1872 24th Ave E holds the honors of being the Oldest House in Montlake.  Built in 1904 on the dirt wagon road that would become 24th Ave E this Dutch Colonial Revival house mimicked similar homes being built on North and Central Capitol Hill to the south and west at that time.  

Address: 1872 24th Ave E
Historic Name: Reagh Residence ~ Built: 1904 ~ Site ID#: 45-15
Legal: TURNER H S PARK ADD Block 7 Lot 5 Parcel #: 8712100740
Style: Dutch Colonial Revival
Description: This two-story shingle-clad Dutch Colonial Revival house sits on a relatively flat lot with low retaining wall, dense groundcover and foundation shrubs. It is oriented sideways from the street, and has a side-gambrel roof with full- width shed dormers on the main south façade and on the rear façade. A full-width porch on the west façade has a flat roof, square posts, a wood balustrade and French doors flanking the brick chimney on the gable wall. The central recessed entry on the south facade is not visible. Windows include a mix of paired 6/1 wood sash and 1/1 and fixed replacement windows.  
Cultural Data: The earliest known owners of this house were John D. & Jeanie Reagh in 1928. In 1938, it was owned by a branch manager at Jamieson Drug Stores, Clarence H. Merritt, and his wife, Berenice. From 1948 through 1958, Olive M. Bell, of Bell & Company owned this house.