619 W Comstock St
Seattle, WA, USA

National Register of Historic Places -Stuart House and Gardens (Stuart-Balcolm Residence)

Statement of Significant:

The Stuart residence is one of Seattle's finest eclectic homes. Built in 1926 in modified English Georgian style by a prominent patron of the arts in Seattle, it remains today a particularly impressive showplace on Queen Anne Hill. The carefully preserved and maintained home is distinguished by its architecture, formal terraced gardens, and impressive site.

DeEtte McAuslan Smith Stuart (1892-1979) was the daughter of a pioneer Washington family and a longtime patron of the arts in Seattle.

Born in Seattle, DeEtte McAuslan was the second in a family of two daughters. Her parents were John McAuslan and Lillie Crutcher McAuslan. Lillie's father Albert Crutcher represented the Knapp-Burrell Implement and Hardware Company of Portland in Seattle during the late 1880s. Burned out in the great fire in 1889, the family continued in the implement and hardware business in Seattle. Seattle's Polson Company is an outgrowth of these early efforts. John McAusland became a Klondiker in 1897 and Mrs. McAuslan accompanied him for a short time on a trip to the Klondike in 1899. The McAuslans built their family home on Queen Anne (now demolished) at the turn of the century.

Both DeEtte and her sister Marie attended the University of Washington. DeEtte worked for the Dexter Horton Bank for several years after attending college; she married Grant Smith, a Seattle contractor with substantial oil properties in Louisiana. Mr. Smith's firm, Grant Smith and Company, constructed a number of downtown buildings including the Olympic Hotel and the White Henry Stuart Building. A specialist in irrigation construction, he had prime responsibility for the Denny Regrade, a major engineering effort which reduced one of Seattle's major hills to a more amenable elevation. Four months after their marriage, Mr. Smith died in 1923.
After her husband's death, DeEtte McAuslan Smith built the subject of this nomination to provide a gracious home for herself, her mother, and her older sister. Mr. George Teufel and Mr. Paul Carlson had taken over the management of Mr. Smith's construction firm and Mrs. Smith entrusted the job of building her residence to them. Mrs. Smith was a major stock holder in the Metropolitan Building Company and had contact with the architect A.H. Albertson through his involvement on the White Henry Stuart Building and other downtown buildings. This resulted in both the architect and the contractor undertaking one of their few residential projects.

Mrs. Smith married Charles E. Stuart in 1931. Mr. Stuart had graduated in engineering from the University of California at Berkeley in 1909, and at the time of his death he was president of Grant Smith and Company as well as Delta Security Company.

Mr. Stuart died in 1946. For the three decades following her marriage, Mrs. Stuart gave of herself and of her material benefits to local arts organizations, schools, and charities. She was a founder of the Seattle Opera Association, a member of the National Council of the Metropolitan Opera, a council member of the National Symphony of Washington, D.C., and the Seattle Art Museum.Mrs. Stuart donated her Queen Anne home to the Seattle Opera Association. offered by the Association for sale and purchased in 1975 by Maurice C. Balcom. Mrs. Stuart was also the donor of the sculpture, The Dance, at the Seattle Opera House. Following her death in 1979, Mrs. Stuart left assets of more than $23 million. Among the beneficiaries were the University of Washington for first year scholarships ($1 million), Children's Orthopedic Hospital ($750,000), First Presbyterian Church ($500,000). Trust fund income went to the Seattle Art Museum for a DeEtte McAuslan Stuart wing for early European porcelain and to the finalists in the Pacific Northwest regional auditions for the Metropolitan Opera.
The Stuart Residence was designed in 1926 by the local firm of A.H. Albertson, Joseph W. Wilson, and Paul Richard, Associates. Principal design is attributed to Albertson.
Abraham H. Albertson was born in New Jersey in 1872. He attended Columbia University and graduated with a degree in architecture in 1895. In 1907, he came to Seattle as a supervising architect for the White Henry Stuart Building (since demolished). His most important commission was the Northern Life Tower (National Register, 1975) for the Northern Life Insurance Company, founded in Seattle in 1906. This building, built in 1928, is considered an influential early work in the Modernistic or Art Deco style. In 1962, the Seattle Chapter of the American Institute of Architects issued a special citation for the Northern Life Tower "in recognition of an older building's professional excellence and enduring quality."
His most significant commission after the Northern Life Tower was St. Joseph's Church, Seattle, an austere but awesome monolithic concrete structure, also locally recognized as an innovative accomplishment in architectural aesthetics. Other buildings in Seattle by Albertson include numerous churches, the Cobb Building, the YMCA, and the old Law Building and the student infirmary on the University of Washington campus, Cornish School (National Register, 1977), old Children's Ortho- pedic and the Women's University Club.
Albertson was a fellow of the American Institute of Architects, and he served for several years as president of the Seattle chapter of the AIA. Albertson retired in 1949 and died in 1964.