• Style: Swiss and Craftsman
• Architect: Robertson & Blackwell (Likely)
• Builder: George W. Wilder (Likely)

Description

This house was originally the carriage house to the Charles Erickson House (the one original residence that was destroyed on this street). Although the house retains some elements of the structure's original design, the exterior has been significantly changed.

History

This house has undergone interesting transformations over the years, early on serving as a garage (and possibly even a stable), and then becoming a residence. This house is believed to be the original carriage house for the demolished Charles Erickson House. The evidence is as follows. King County dates the house to 1903, approximately when the Erickson house was built. An early plat map for the street (around 1912) shows the carriage house, with C.J. Erickson as the owner. Although there is another house separating this carriage house from the Erickson House, its placement with an alley to the rear best served its carriage house role. Tax rolls from the 1920s show the Scandinavian American Bank as the land's owner, but C.J. Erickson was a director, and he signed for the payment.

Also design elements of this carriage house match the original Erickson House. Early pictures show a similar roofline, similar bargeboards, similar massive carved corbels bookending the gables, similar double windows on the gables, each formed by a grid of leaded glass squares, and shingles on the 2nd story but not the first. For these reason, the architect, builder, and owners are likely the same as those of the Erickson House.

P. Booker Reed, who built the Erickson House (and presumably Carriage House) was a former mayor of Louisville, and also a very successful businessman. During the Civil War, Reed served as a private in the Confederate army (in the Ninth Kentucky Infantry). After the war, he studied at the University of Louisiana and received a medical degree. In 1884, he was elected mayor of Louisville (by a 7:2 margin). Mayor Reed was a fiscal conservative who balanced the city budget and worked to reduce corruption in government.

C.J. Erickson subsequently owned this carriage house. The C.J. Erickson Construction Co. helped build Seattle and much of the Puget Sound. His company received a contract for part of the Denny Regrade, and dug much of the Lake Washington Ship Canal. The 'Montlake Cut' was originally called 'The Erickson Cut'. He built a railroad to supply Port Angeles' mills with logs. At the Bremerton Navy Yards, he built the largest U.S. Government dry dock at 863 feet. Erickson was also president of Erickson Shipbuilding and the Seattle North Pacific Shipbuilding Company, which built steel vessels for the U.S. World War I emergency fleet. He also founded Adelphia College in Capitol Hill, whose former campus is now the site of Seattle Preparatory School.

The 1930 Tax Rolls has an annotation that this property was issued back to King County via a conveyance deed in 1931. It remained county property for several years, until the Ederer family purchased it, and it then became the garage to their house. It was subsequently sold, and in 1984 the carriage house was remodeled into its current house form.