Designated a Seattle, Washington

Seattle, Washington

Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...

 Landmark, the Norvell House was built in 1908 and is a late example of the Swiss chalet style

Swiss chalet style

Swiss chalet style is an architectural style inspired by the chalets of Switzerland. The style originated in Germany in the early 19th century and was popular in parts of Europe and North America, notably in the architecture of Norway, the country house architecture of Sweden, Cincinnati, Ohio,...

 of Architecture

Architecture

Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...

. Located in the community of Ballard

Ballard, Seattle

Ballard is a neighborhood located in the northwestern part of Seattle, Washington. To the north it is bounded by Crown Hill, ; to the east by Greenwood, Phinney Ridge and Fremont ; to the south by the Lake Washington Ship Canal; and to the west by Puget Sound’s Shilshole Bay. The neighborhood’s...

, in the vicinity of Sunset Hill

Sunset Hill

Sunset Hill can mean:*Spokane, Washington, a neighborhood*Seattle, Washington, a neighborhood and park in the Ballard area of Seattle.*Sunset Hill , a Mississippi Landmark*Kansas City, Missouri, a neighborhood...

, it sits on its original-sized lot with impressive heritage trees and retains its flanking carriage house

Carriage house

A carriage house, also called remise or coach house, is an outbuilding which was originally built to house horse-drawn carriages and the related tack.In Great Britain the farm building was called a Cart Shed...

.

Architectural style

The house combines elements of vernacular architecture

Vernacular architecture

Vernacular architecture is a term used to categorize methods of construction which use locally available resources and traditions to address local needs and circumstances. Vernacular architecture tends to evolve over time to reflect the environmental, cultural and historical context in which it...

 and eclecticism

Eclecticism

Eclecticism is a conceptual approach that does not hold rigidly to a single paradigm or set of assumptions, but instead draws upon multiple theories, styles, or ideas to gain complementary insights into a subject, or applies different theories in particular cases.It can sometimes seem inelegant or...

. The generous interior woodwork and fir floors indicate the importance of the local lumber industry. The interior, however, also contains many design influences from the early twentieth century, such as classical revival columns, American Craftsman

American Craftsman

The American Craftsman Style, or the American Arts and Crafts Movement, is an American domestic architectural, interior design, landscape design, applied arts, and decorative arts style and lifestyle philosophy that began in the last years of the 19th century. As a comprehensive design and art...

-style trim and moldings along with beveled and stained glass

Stained glass

The term stained glass can refer to coloured glass as a material or to works produced from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant buildings...

 windows, while the exterior is loaded with ornate brackets, turrets and balconies. The house contains fanciful elements in addition to large overhanging eaves: a flared cupola

Cupola

In architecture, a cupola is a small, most-often dome-like, structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome....

 resting on the front roof somewhat resembles the Zytglogge

Zytglogge

The Zytglogge tower is a landmark medieval tower in Bern, Switzerland. Built in the early 13th century, it has served the city as guard tower, prison, clock tower, centre of urban life and civic memorial....

 clock tower

Clock tower

A clock tower is a tower specifically built with one or more clock faces. Clock towers can be either freestanding or part of a church or municipal building such as a town hall. Some clock towers are not true clock towers having had their clock faces added to an already existing building...

 in Bern, Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

.

As the Norvell House is located in a community extensively settled by Norwegians, it has been suggested the architectural style of the home was influenced by the fashionable late nineteenth century style in Norway

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

, where the Swiss Chalet style evolved into a distinctive variation known as the "Viking" or Dragon Style" . In Norway there had been a revival of interest in the preservation of the historic Stave church

Stave church

A stave church is a medieval wooden church with a post and beam construction related to timber framing. The wall frames are filled with vertical planks. The load-bearing posts have lent their name to the building technique...

es which characteristically include curves, carvings, fancy-cut balustrades and shingles in their design, and many Norwegians began to include these details in their newly-built homes, hotels and other commercial buildings. The Norvell House however lacks any of these purely Norwegian motifs, and so it is categorized as a local example of the Swiss Chalet revival style.

History

The house is now more than a century old. It was originally built in 1908 for the manager of the Stimson Lumber Mill using fir timber from the sawmill in Ballard, but takes its name from the owners who occupied the house for the longest period of time, James and Hazel Norvell. They purchased it in 1949, a time when it was considered by many postwar families to be out-of-date, but valuing its style, chose to retain most of its original features unchanged. James Norvell died in 1986 and Hazel remained in the house until her death in 2005.

The house was designated a Seattle Landmark on May 14, 1979.

Further reading

• Kreisman, Lawrence. Historic Preservation Seattle. Seattle, Historic Seattle Preservation and Development Authority, 1985.
• Kreisman, Lawrence. “The Unlikely Chalet.” Seattle Times Magazine”, 30, May, 1999. 12. http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19990530&slug=pball3
• Swope, Caroline. Classic Houses of Seattle: highstyle to vernacular, 1870-1950. Portland, Timber Press, 2005.

External links

• http://www.cityofseattle.net/Neighborhoods/preservation/ballard.htm
• http://www.ballardhistory.org
• http://blog.seattlepi.com/ballard/archives/167578.asp?from=blog_last3