Uptown Living

Circa-1912 Shingle cottage in Annesdale.

by John Griffin

fter the success the Brinkley Boys made in 1903 of their residential development north of Central called Annesdale Park, they decided to carve up the farm behind the family home. The land west of Bellevue opened in 1906, and these streets – named for Robert Brinkley Snowden’s children – were extended east behind the big house by 1910. Though outside the city limits, they offered all the amenities you’d want, such as sewer connections, gas and water mains, and streetlights.
This house, built in 1912 only two years after Agnes Place was extended, probably began as one of the smaller homes on the block. A later rear addition accommodates a relocated and expanded kitchen and a full bath. This made room on the ground floor for a family room, and that’s probably as important as the new kitchen by today’s standards.
The roof line here begins 4 feet above the second-floor level. It feels inside just like a knee wall in any other finished attic, but here no space is wasted in unusable low spots out under the roof eaves. The advantage is that all of the second floor under-roof is useable square footage. Why more houses aren’t built with this efficient form of framing beats me.
Another detail of note is the projecting staircase set into a box bay supported by brackets. When no basement is built, this saves the cost of the footing, and the projecting bay is a wonderful sculptural element that enlivens the exterior massing.
There are some Shingle-style elements on the exterior. The siding begins at the top with cedar shakes above the second floor windows, then changes to narrow horizontal boards beside the windows. The lower floor is finished in a wide, horizontal boards. The interior layout shows kinship to the contemporary Queen Anne style, and it may be a bit of each, but, in either instance, simplified.
Ten-foot ceilings and well-redone floors inside are the first treat. The entry and living-room floors are narrow oak, the remainder of the house a more richly colored heart pine. The living room mantel is a richly grained quarter-sawn oak, and the dark green tiles here play perfectly against the oak.
A butler’s pantry with glass-fronted cabinet divides the living and dining rooms. The new kitchen has a good layout, ceramic tile counters, and lots of light. Out back there’s an arbored patio for alfresco dining and a small, two-story rear house that needs attention but would be a perfect home office above yard-tool storage area.
The upstairs bedrooms, each with two walk-in closets under those high eaves, are outstanding. They too have tall ceilings, transoms over doors, and big double windows. The bath here is in a larger dormer opposite the staircase bay that admits lots of light. A new ceramic floor was just installed, but all the old fixtures, including the footed tub were reinstalled.
This little cottage with its updated addition has proved as livable and durable as the whole of the Annesdale Snowden neighborhood. It may have started as the family farm, but this is uptown living now. n

1372 Agnes Place
Approximately 1,800 square feet
2 bdrms, 2 baths; $84,900
Realtor: Sowell & Co., 278-4380
Agent: Linda Sowell, 454-0540