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Building History

Frank Albert Bartlett (1851-1921) was the son of the prominent Port Townsend businessman Charles C. Bartlett (1837-1893); Frank would head the Port Townsend Steel. Wire and Nail Company, a concern that operated briefly in the city. He married Leila R. Seavey (1858-1935) in about 1880, and this house was begun shortly after their wedding. The couple had two children--Charles Carroll (1881-1949) and Francis M. (born c. 08/1891).

By 1900, according to the US Census of that year, Frank and Lela had moved from this Second Empire residence to another dwelling at 122 Lincoln Street. The couple divorced and Frank remarried Imogene Whitacre (1860-1941). Harry P. and Mary Johnson renovated the house in the late 1950s, at a time when many Americans were beginning to reappraise the aesthetic appeal of 19th century buildings.

A guest cottage was also erected behind the main house on the property.

Building Notes

Frank A. Bartlett chose the then-fashionable Second Empire Style for his own home located on a ridge overlooking Port Townsend; a "Second Baroque" architectural era developed in France during Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte's Second Empire (1851-1870), a grand stylistic direction epitomized by Charles Garnier's remarkably elegant, ornate Paris Opera House (1861-1875). Inspired by this work, young American architects increasingly traveled to France and began to fill classes at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts after 1870. Their immersion in things French stoked interest at home in contemporary French architecture and culture.

The most important aspect of the Second Empire was the Mansard roof; The Bartlett House had a concave mansard roof with patterned roof shingles and a modest eaves overhang sheltering a decorative frieze with carved brackets. In the US, both the Second Empire Style and the slightly earlier Italianate Style shared some similar features: elaborate friezes and bracketwork, long, thin window proportions and frequent use of bay windows. The eaves line of the Second Empire tended to be shorter than that of the Italianate, and the latter lacked the distinctive Mansard roof. Few, well-detailed Second Empire houses remain in WA State, the Bartlett House being one of the best.

In 2014, the residence had 5 bedrooms, 3 baths, and 4,518 square feet, and occupied a 0.31-acre lot.