The Blackstone Apartments are located at 222 Summit Ave East in the

Capitol Hill Capitol Hill, in addition to being a metonym for the United States Congress, is the largest historic residential neighborhood in Washington, D.C., stretching easterly in front of the United States Capitol along wide avenues. It is one of the ...

neighborhood of

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...

, United States. The apartment complex was designed and owned by J.S. Long and built by the Long Building Company in 1927. The Long Building Company was known for designing and building many of the

Bungalow A bungalow is a small house or cottage that is either single-story or has a second story built into a sloping roof (usually with dormer windows), and may be surrounded by wide verandas. The first house in England that was classified as a b ...

-style homes, particularly in the

First Hill First Hill is a neighborhood in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is named for the hill on which it is located, which in turn is so named for being the first hill encountered while traveling east from downtown Seattle toward Lake Washing ...

neighborhood of

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

under the guidance of Stanley Long. The building consists of 26 units with a mixture of 2-, 3-, 4-, and 6-room suites; it has a brick exterior with a great deal of mahogany woodwork in the interiors and built-ins throughout the units, and was originally fitted with Monarch

electric stove An electric stove or electric range is a stove with an integrated electrical heating device to cook and bake. Electric stoves became popular as replacements for solid-fuel (wood or coal) stoves which required more labor to operate and maintain. S ...

s and

Frigidaire Frigidaire Appliance Company is the American consumer and commercial home appliances brand subsidiary of multinational company Electrolux. Frigidaire was founded as the Guardian Frigerator Company in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and developed the first s ...

s. The complex was "regarded as one of the most modern units of its kind in the city" when it was completed.

History

The Area

In the early 20th century, Capitol Hill was one of the wealthier areas of Seattle. It has since been transformed into a hip, urban area for young professionals; it is known as the

gay village A gay village is a geographical area with generally recognized boundaries that is inhabited or frequented by many lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBT) people. Gay villages often contain a number of gay-oriented establish ...

in Seattle. The Blackstone Apartments are one of the few pre-

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

complexes remaining in Capitol Hill; post-WWII apartments differed greatly in this area. These newer complexes looked consistent, but with their large windows and courtyards, privacy was lost; they no longer reflected the luxurious apartments which Capitol Hill had once been known for. The Blackstone, however, which also had large windows, had been built with a raised first floor to prevent passersby from peering into the private lives lived inside the units.

1920s Seattle Architecture

The 1920s in Seattle saw a change in the style of popular architecture. Inspired by the newness of the country, Seattle architects had expressed freedom in their architectural creations. By this time people's interest in the Arts and Crafts Movement, seen in the popular residential bungalow designs in the early 20th century, was beginning to decline. Design now turned to an eclectic-historic combination, particularly of the

Classical Revival Neoclassical architecture is an architectural style produced by the Neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century in Italy and France. It became one of the most prominent architectural styles in the Western world. The prevailing style ...

and English Revival styles. The Blackstone particularly reflects this turn, combining Classical design elements with modern technology.

The Vernacular

The early 20th century became a difficult time for architectural identification; no longer could a building be designated as

vernacular architecture Vernacular architecture is building done outside any academic tradition, and without professional guidance. This category encompasses a wide range and variety of building types, with differing methods of construction, from around the world, bo ...

(folk culture) or as

elite In political and sociological theory, the elite (french: élite, from la, eligere, to select or to sort out) are a small group of powerful people who hold a disproportionate amount of wealth, privilege, political power, or skill in a group. D ...

architecture (designed by an architect), but rather something in the middle. To contribute to the confusion of identification, most commercial, industrial, and residential buildings in Seattle at this time were designed not by architects but by builders. Because of this, these buildings are often considered to be the best representations of a new kind of architecture in Seattle: popular - vernacular - high-style. The Blackstone Apartments, a residential building designed by a builder and built for the middle to upper class, is a great example of this popular – vernacular – high-style architecture of the pre-WWII era in Seattle.

Stock Market Crash

Immediately after the

Wall Street Crash of 1929 The Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as the Great Crash, was a major American stock market crash that occurred in the autumn of 1929. It started in September and ended late in October, when share prices on the New York Stock Exchange colla ...

, some people believed that real estate would be a safer investment than stocks, and many people began to purchase apartment complexes; real estate saw a peak that year in prices, before they began falling as the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

took hold in the country. These investments were particularly popular the weeks preceding the crash in Seattle; only a few weeks after the crash, the Blackstone Apartments became "the largest deal of the kind," selling for $140,000 to John J. Freeley for Mrs. Ada Parfitt. The next closest apartment sale in the Seattle area was for the Rosemont Apartments for $56,000.

Architect/Owner

Not much is known about the complex's designer and original owner, J.S. Long. He was a designer for the Long Building Company, particularly of their

Arts and Crafts A handicraft, sometimes more precisely expressed as artisanal handicraft or handmade, is any of a wide variety of types of work where useful and decorative objects are made completely by one’s hand or by using only simple, non-automated re ...

style bungalows, some of which were featured in ''

The Craftsman Craftsman may refer to: A profession *Artisan, a skilled manual worker who makes items that may be functional or strictly decorative *Master craftsman, an artisan who has achieved such a standard that he may establish his own workshop and take o ...

'' magazine. The

Sears Catalog Home Sears Modern Homes were catalog and kit houses sold primarily through mail order by Sears, Roebuck and Co., an American retailer. From 1908 to 1942, Sears sold more than 70,000 of these houses in North America, by the company's count. Sears ...

"The Ashmore," available between 1916 and 1922, is believed to have been based on one of J.S. Long and the Long Building Company's Seattle bungalow designs."The "Ashmore", 424 Oliver Avenue South, Minneapolis, Minnesota"
/ref> J. S. Long is Stanley Long, as Stanley's obituary on the HistoryLink article regarding him reads "...he leaves wife Blanche". The 1923 Seattle directory shows that J. S. was married to Blanche. There is no listing for a Stanley, and only J. S. is listed as owner in directories.

References

{{reflist, 2 Residential buildings in Seattle Residential buildings completed in 1927 Apartment buildings in Washington (state)