manystepshouse

[manystepshouse]

Our House

My wife and I purchased our house in 1993 and have been living in and refurbishing it since.

With time on my hands and out of idle curiosity I’ve decided to document the history of our house, as well as some the changes we’ve made over our time living here.

It’s a Craftsman style house built in 1909 in West Seattle.  The original owners were Archibald and Josephine Denniston.  As best as I’ve able to determine, the owners over the years have been:

1909-1921 Archibald and Josephine Denniston

1921-1957 Samuel and Telka Inch

1957-1958 Arthur and Goldie* Shorrock Sr.

1958-1965 Arthur and Norma Shorrock Jr.

1965-1973 Fritz and Gerde Kaetel

1973-1984 Henry and Laurie Kaufman

1984-1993 Laurie Kaufman/Miller

*Goldie was the daughter of Samuel and Telka Inch so the Inch/Shorrocks had a long association with the house.

At times the house was rented.  There seems to have been a surprising number of people moving in and out over the years including the Inch/Shorrocks who lived here interminttently while they owned the property.  Families known to have rented and lived in it include:

1918-1921 Harry and Amanda Brandt

1934 Everett and Louise Fenton

1942 Howard and Elise Jones

1945 John Walker

1948-1950 Donald and Alice Reed

1992-1993 Arthur and Betty Penketh

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Front porch about 1912

A previous owner had these photos.  We think they are from around 1912-1913.  No idea who the people are but I suspect the younger woman is Josephine Denniston and the young boy her son, William R. Denniston who was born in 1906.

The Dennistons did not live in the house long, having relocated to San Francisco by 1916.

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Front Stairs about 1912

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Exterior south

The woods behind the house are no longer so dense and now consist primarily of big leaf maple trees.  Sadly the clinker brick porch is long gone.

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Living room about 1912

The clinker brink fireplace is massive and could easily fit three foot long logs.  It even has a hook for suspending a pot over the coals.

 We still have the original andirons and fireplace tools.

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Living room 2023

When we purchased the house, the arch over the firebox was failing and the flue was unlined.   We had the fireplace and chimney totally rebuilt.  At one point all the bricks for the fireplace were laid out on the living room floor.  The screen was made to our design by a local blacksmith who also restored the original andirons.

(Our thanks to Dave and Andrea Lisch, both great blacksmiths and Dave a superb master knife maker.)

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Dining room at Christmas about 1912

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Dining room 2023

By the time we purchased the house, the original light fixture had been removed.  The current fixture was found in the basement and a matching one, found at a local antique store, was installed in the entry hall.

(Note that we are not responsible for the ghastly fence visible through the window.  It appeared while we were away on vacation.  It’s a long story.)

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About 1912

When the house was first built, the property extended all the way to the beach.

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Sometime in the 1930′s

The street in front of the house was realigned sometime in the 1920′s, moving it back from the beach and closer to the house.  The garage was put in sometime around when the street was moved.

After the road was moved, the property on the beach side of the road was sold off and two houses built there.

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Summer 2021. 

It’s a long flight of stairs from the street to the front door, about a two story climb in total.  With all the stairs we’ve nicknamed the place ‘ManyStepsHouse’.  For safety we had a handrail installed by a local blacksmith.