A Glimpse Inside Fred Gasch’s Modern Seventh and Union Home
A detailed look at a high-end Victorian residential build in 1885 Seattle, highlighting the era's transition toward 'hard-finished' interiors and local craftsmanship.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Carpenters are currently engaged in putting the finishing touches on the interior of Fred Gasch’s handsome residence on the corner of Seventh and Union streets, which is one of the finest buildings on that popular residential thoroughfare. The main part of the house is 28 by 34 feet, with a wing 20 by 26 feet. The building has a brick basement the full size of the house, in which is located the furnace that heats the rooms. The first floor has a parlor 16 by 19 feet, connected by sliding doors with a sitting room 14 by 16 feet, the latter containing a bay window 4 by 10 feet. On this floor is also a downstairs bedroom, dining room, kitchen, pantry, and bathroom. The house faces to the southwest and is approached by a flight of stairs to a front porch, from which you enter a hall 6 feet wide and 21 feet long. From this hall, handsome winding stairs lead to the second floor, on which are three large bedrooms and a small chamber. The interior woodwork of the building is of native woods, cedar and maple, handsomely polished, and the walls are all hard finished and tinted with bright, cheerful colors, presenting a most pleasing effect. Mr. and Mrs. Gasch may well be proud of their new Union Street home. T. C. Hines, Esq., has secured a two-year lease of this handsome cottage and will in a few days move his family therein.
“The interior woodwork of the building is of native woods, cedar and maple, handsomely polished, and the walls are all hard finished and tinted with bright, cheerful colors, presenting a most pleasing effect.”
The intersection of 7th Avenue and Union Street, once a residential thoroughfare for fine cottages like the Gasch home, is today the heart of downtown Seattle's dense commercial core near the Washington State Convention Center. This report captures a fleeting moment when 'modern' living meant internal furnaces, hard-finished walls, and local cedar—a stark contrast to the high-rise steel and glass development that defines the neighborhood today.
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