&
news June 12, 2019
Pacific Publishing Company – Queen Anne & Magnolia News • Madison Park Times • City Living Seattle
7
&Magnolia news Home & Real Estate QueenAnne&Magnolia news QueenAnne&Magnolia news QueenAnne
First Queen Anne telephone exchange achieves landmark status Developer proceeding with designs to build townhomes within historic exterior By Brandon Macz
QA&Mag News editor
The Queen Anne Masonic Lodge building is now a designated Seattle landmark, but only its distinctive exterior, which means plans to build two townhomes inside it can proceed. The Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board accepted the building’s nomination in April, but not because of its long history as home to Queen Anne Masonic Lodge No. 242. The 114-year-old building started as the Sunset Telephone & Telegraph Exchange, the first phone exchange on Queen Anne Hill, in 1905.
The building at 1608 Fourth Ave. W. was sold to the Queen Anne Masons in 1924, after the phone company moved the exchange to a larger building down the street. The landmarks board designated the Garfield Exchange last December, which is now being redeveloped into an apartment building. Telephone exchanges provided early employment opportunities for educated women, and that cultural significance is what influenced the landmark board’s decision more than its lodge history. Susan Boyle with BOLA Architecture+Planning prepared the
Photo by Brandon Macz The Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board has designated the exterior of the former Queen Anne Masonic Lodge building as a historic landmark.
nomination report for Queen Anne companies R&R Development and Eiffel Tour, and was asked by the landmarks board in April to come back with more history about the exchange
Three Birds Home and Gifts flying out of Queen Anne due to lost lease
and the women who worked there. While the information pulled from old periodicals and documents left EXCHANGE, Page 8
WALL STREET GROUP
Are you considering a move? Would you like to know what your home is worth in today’s market? Let’s meet and discuss your needs.
SOLD IN 6 DAYS
Photo by Hugh Garbrick Three Birds Home and Gifts will close near the end of the month after losing its lease.
Closing sale for home decor store running through June By Hugh Garbrick
QA&Mag News summer intern
Three Birds Home and Gifts will officially close when “inventory has sold down,” at the end June, after eight years of business on Queen Anne Avenue, according to an email from owner Robin Johnson. Johnson tells Queen Anne News Three Birds is closing for lease-related reasons; she declined an interview request. In a Facebook
post on the business’ page, Johnson writes Three Birds lost its lease. “Unfortunately, dealing with a multi-billion dollar nation-wide landlord has proven to be most challenging,” she wrote. The shop specializes in home decoration, jewelry, furniture and other novelty items. Inside there are incandescent bulbs strung across the ceiling, illuminating the dwindling CLOSING, Page 10
Listed at $1.150 million Charming 1953 remodeled home with 4 bedrooms, 2 baths, and a full 3-car garage.
STEWART KARSTENS 206-601-3421 www.stewartkarstens.com stewartk@windermere.com