Resolution 6218 - Laserfiche WebLink

Describe the nominated property, first with an overall written sketch of the building and its site, then a discussion of the features that create the historical appearance of the property. These features may include setting, design, style, special details and craftsmanship and interior finishing. If possible, describe any changes that have occurred over time and how these changes have affected the historical character of the building. The Challacombe & Fickel Funeral Home was designed by noted architect Benjamin F. Turnbull and built in 1923 as a funeral home with a residence on the two upper floors. The building has two full floors and a third partial, dormered story. This building has elements of both Colonial Revival and American Foursquare styles. The principal areas of elaboration in Colonial Revival houses are entrances, cornices, and windows. Elements on the Challacombe and Fickel building reflective of Colonial Revival style include the accentuated front door with sidelights and a rectangular window over the door,the porch and porte cochere supported by paired columns and topped with a balustrade with turned balusters, the symmetrically balanced windows on the second story, and double-hung windows with twelve panes over one. The hipped roof is typical of Colonial Revival buildings built between 1900 and 1940. The dentils along the cornice line, the porch roof, and the porte cochere are also typical of Colonial Revival style. The use of red brick on the Challacombe and Fickel building reflects the use of brick on Colonial Revival buildings beginning around 1915,predominantly on high style examples. Elements of the building which reflect the American Foursquare style include the overall scale of the building,the low-pitched hipped roof with wide overhanging eaves,hipped dormers, and the horizontal lines of the eaves, cornice, and porch roof and railing. The Challacombe & Fickel funeral home was built as a mixed-use building, housing both a funeral home business and a residence, and the architect seems to have combined elements of the Colonial Revival and American Foursquare styles to reflect both those uses. The Colonial Revival design elements and red brick signaled to the community that this was a high style commercial business. The strong design elements and ornamentation on the ground-level story in particular made this statement. The upper stories have a more residential look and feel appropriate to the use within, created by the familiar residential American Foursquare elements of the broad eave overhang,horizontal lines and massing of the building. In addition to reflecting the multi-uses within, the combination of styles in the Challacombe& Fickel building also reflects a change in popularity of styles which occurred nationwide around 1920. The American Foursquare style is a variation on the Prairie style, originally developed to address domestic architecture rather than public buildings. The style in its vernacular form was spread widely throughout the country by pattern books published in the Midwest. One of the more short-lived styles, it grew, flourished, and declined in the years between 1900 and 1920. It was a popular style in Everett as evidenced by the number of American Foursquare houses built in the community in the early part of the century. When the Challacombe&Fickle funeral home was built in 1923, there was a transition in popularity nationwide from Prairie style to Colonial