3726 East Madison Street
Seattle, WA, USA

Samuel Hyde House

Samuel Hyde House is a building at 3726 East Madison Street in Seattle, United States listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The building, built in 1909–1910 for liquor magnate Samuel Hyde, housed the residence of the Russian consul-general from 1994–April 2018 when the US State Department evicted the consul-general following the White House ordered closure of Russia's Seattle consulate office.

The two-story brick house is fronted by a portico with Corinthian columns; there is a brick carriage house in back. It is believed that the grounds were laid out by the Olmsted Brothers. The Olmsteds played a prominent role in designing Seattle's system of parks and boulevards, and were responsible for landscaping the grounds of the 1909 Alaska–Yukon–Pacific Exposition on the campus of the University of Washington.

National Register of Historic Places - Samuel Hyde House

Statement of Significance:

Completed in 1910 for liquor entrepreneur Samuel Hyde, the Hyde House together with its original grounds and carriage house represents one of Seattle's more distinguished neo-classical residences. The residence, carriage house and the walls enclosing the grounds were designed by the locally prominent architectural partnership of Bebb and Mendel. Bebb and Mendel established their Seattle partnership in 1901 and gained great popularity among wealthy clients over the following thirteen years of their association. The Hyde House ranks as one of their finest designs.

Architecturally, the internal and external design of the house reflects a transition from the rigid and formal symmetry characteristic of Georgian, Federal and Greek Revival residences to a more informal arrangement of spaces and forms responding to twentieth century conveniences and living pattens. The primary or south entrance facade is symmetrically balanced and is distinguished by an imposing, Corinthian portico announcing the formal, central entrance. The other three elevations are asymmetrical in composition but possess equally refined features and details. Throughout the structure, the red pressed brick walls are laid up precisely in common bond with thin, beaded mortar joints and trimmed with terra cotta lintels, sills, and a continuous first-story sill course.

Interior rooms and halls are richly finished in original hardwood paneling and trim and include a variety of original Tiffany-style light fixtures. At the west side of the central hall the music or reception chamber features finely detailed renaissance-styled window casings and a frescoed ceiling. At the east side of the hall, the drawing room is finished in a modified neo-Georgian manner with mahogany wainscoting, an entablature and cornice, pilaster-framed window casings and a large overmantel above the marble-faced fireplace. Adjoining the drawing room, the dining room is designed in a Jacobean-style with Siberian oak paneling and trim. This room features an exceptional oil on canvas mural above the plate rail depicting a continuous pastoral landscape perhaps related to the nearby Lake Washington shoreline. The room also includes handsome wall and ceiling fixtures and a coffered ceiling. Significant spaces also include the central hall and stairway both of which include paneled wainscoting and trim. The stairway features an exceptional stained-glass window believed to represent Lake Washington and the Cascades, as well as fine balustrades and newels, and a candelabrum at the bottom of the stairs.

With only two exceptions the original interior and exterior features remain unaltered and in an excellent state of preservation. The exceptions, which include new first-story floors and a remodeled kitchen, do not detract noticeably from the historical quality of the house.