OpenStreetMap (new tab)

Google Map (new tab)

Google Streetview (new tab)

Overview

According to a Seattle Times article of 07/29/1928, the Frank R. Pierce House would be the first residence in the Colman-Denny property later known as Windermere. Whether it was the first house to be completed or not, it was an early dwelling in this luxurious and highly restricted community.

Building History

In 1928, Seattle architect Arthur L. Loveless (1873-1971) designed this $20,000 residence for the author Frank Richardson Pierce, Sr., (born 10/21/1881 in Greenfield, MA-d. 01/07/1966 in Seattle, WA) and his wife Vivian Grant Gill (born 1895 in WA-d. 03/27/1966 in King County, WA) in the new Colman-Denny Windermere tract north of the fashionable Laurelhurst neighborhood. The house had cross-gabled Tudor Revival styling, with steeply pitched roofs and prominent projecting gables--two of which were half-timbered--on the front facade. The roof was shingled, and windows were of the casement variety. It appeared in the Seattle Times on 07/29/1928. (See "First Home Soon To Be Built in New Community," Seattle Times, 07/29/1928, p. 24.)

The house was likely finished in 1928 and accommodated Frank Pierce, Sr., who wrote adventure novels and short stories, his wife Vivian, their children and a servant. Frank and Vivian married on 09/13/1916 in Seattle, while he worked as a clerk and stenographer for the City of Seattle. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation Washington State Archives; Olympia, Washington; Washington Marriage Records, 1854-2013; Reference Number: kingcoarchmc55355, accessed 04/04/2024.) Just after their marriage and prior to building their Windermere house, they lived at 4500 Linden Avenue in Seattle's Fremont neighborhood, a house dating from 1916 that they may have also had built. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation Year: 1920; Census Place: Seattle, King, Washington; Roll: T625_1926; Page: 2A; Enumeration District: 122, accessed 04/04/2024.) In about 1920, he quit his position in city government to become a full-time writer. A prolific author, Frank Pierce penned "over 1,500 short stories, 3 novels, and 4 feature films," many set in the West or Alaska. Pierce served a year and a half as a US Navy boatswain and, in the early 1920s, he worked as a photo journalist for Motorcycling and Bicycling Illustrated traveling from Alaska to Mexico on a motorcycle, experiences that likely influenced his adventure writing. Pierce became a local leader in the Northwest Writers Association (formed in 1921) and was active in three other national writers' groups, including the Author League of America, the League of Western Writers and the Authors Guild of America. Vivian Pierce donated her husband's papers to the University of Washington Libraries on 02/23/1966 just after his death. (See University of Washington Libraries.edu, "Frank Richardson Pierce Papers," accessed 04/04/2024.)

As per the 1930 US Census, the Pierces resided at this address with their children Frank R. Pierce, Jr., (born 09/17/1917 in Seattle, WA-d. 12/14/1985 in Honolulu, HI), Dorothy Pierce Bronson (born 06/01/1922 in Seattle, WA-d. 02/21/2020 in Pierce County, WA), Frederick Grant Pierce (born 11/19/1928 in Seattle, WA-d. 02/05/2017 in King County, WA) and a 19-year-old household worker, Dorothy M. Haagen (born c. 1911 in WA).

Frank Pierce, Jr., worked as a home builder in 1955. (See Seattle, Washington, City Directory, 1955, p. 1130.) The family lived at this address until at least 1954. (See Seattle, Washington, City Directory, 1954, p. 1124.) By 1955, Frank and Vivian had moved to 5110 East 54th Street in Windermere. (See Seattle, Washington, City Directory, 1955, p. 1130.)

Robert B. and Ruth Dunn resided in this house before 03/10/2000, when its deed was relisted under Robert Dunn's name alone. On 08/21/2006, the Dunn Revocable Trust sold the house and its 1.45 acres to John B. and Sallie C. Chaney for $3,900,000. The Chaney Family created a revocable trust on 03/31/2016.

Building Notes

In 2024, the Pierce House occupied a 63,265-square-foot (1.45-acre) lot. The house, as per King County Assessor records, had 5,010 total square feet, 4,380 if the basement was not included. The property included a dock, moorage and canopy, an in-ground swimming pool, a tram leading down to the shoreline, and a 920-square-foot garage with a 590-square-foot exercise room on the second floor.

Prior to 04/04/2024, PCAD mistakenly located the Frank R. Pierce House at 3054 East Laurelhurst Drive NE rather than at its correct address at 5747 NE Ambleside Road. Thank you to homeowner Sallie Chaney and Howard L. Miller of The Johnson Partnership Architects for correcting this error. (See emails from Sallie Chaney to the author, 04/03/2024 and from Howard L. Miller to the author, 04/03/2024.)