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Overview

US Army Captain William Wallace Robinson, Jr., (1846-1917) inhabited this residence in Lower Queen Anne, north of Downtown Seattle for a brief time between c. 1898-1900 and 1900. At this time, Robinson served as the Assistant Quartermasterresponsible for the initial surveying and construction of Fort Lawton in the Magnolia neighborhood of Seattle. Following his assignment in Seattle to set up Fort Lawton, Robinson was transferred to Honolulu, HI, by about 1900. The house was featured in the promotional brochure Seattle and the Orient by Alfred D. Bowen (1900). The boosterish publication was meant to illustrate the fine port facilities, factories, office buildings and residences in Seattle, and positioning it as an ideal port to Japan, China and the rest of Asia. Robinson retired from the military before World War I a brigadier general.

Building History

Robinson supervised the construction of Fort Lawton from offices in the Haller Building (1897-1899) and above the Scandinavian-American Bank in Pioneer Square (1900). According to Seattle city directories (1897-1900), he and his family resided in this Queen Anne style house in Lower Queen Anne. The name Queen Anne was given to this area of the city for the fine residences in that style being built by well-to-do families in the 1880s and 1890s. His father, also a US Army captain, lived in Seattle at this time, as well, staying in boarding houses until his death in 1903.

Robinson sold this house in 10/1899. A Seattle Times real estate notice reported: "One of the finest residences in the city was sold yesterday to Capt. E.E. Caine by Crawford & Conover, on behalf of W. H. Graham, of Napa, Cal., for $7000. The property in on the corner of Aloha and Warren Streets in North Seattle, and is 120 x 120, with a large residence of the most modern design standing upon it. The house is at present occupied by Capt. W. W. Robinson, Jr., and family." (See "Sold for $7,000," Seattle Times, 10/21/1899, p. 8.)

Demolition

The Toscano Condominiums stood on this site at 907 Warren Avenue North in 2016.

PCAD id: 19931