Some Interesting NE Surber History

 A Laurelhurst Community Club member published this history about NE Surber Drive:

William H. Surber Researched and written by Jim Rupp, LCC trustee

 

When developers created Laurelhurst, their plats had picturesque street names that are long forgotten. Names like Laurel Avenue, Prospect Avenue, Ridge Road, and View Drive (all included in the Laurelhurst Heights Plat of the early 1900s) disappeared when Laurelhurst was annexed to Seattle in 1910. 

Most street names were given numbers, which helped the fire department find homes before they burned to the ground. There are some exceptions. For instance, Cascade and Olympic drives became East and West Laurelhurst drives. 

And Surber Avenue and Surber Place became Surber Drive. Why keep the Surber name? Well, it’s because its namesake – William H. Surber – was one of the earliest settlers in the area, and he was a memorable figure they called “Uncle Joe.” 

He came to Seattle in 1858 and worked as a carpenter and as a contractor driving piles for many of the early waterfront railroad trestles. He was also Seattle’s first chief of police. Through it all he supplemented his income by selling wild game he hunted throughout the area. He shot his first deer in downtown Seattle, near what is now Marion Street and Third and Fourth avenues. 

One of Surber’s favorite hunting spots was what became Laurelhurst. In 1861 he acquired 160 acres along the shores of Union Bay, bordered on the east and west by what are now 45th NE and 35th NE. 

In 1888 Henry Yesler bought part of that property and built a sawmill and created the town of Yesler, near where the UW Horticulture Center is located. Surber had a house and a farm on the property, and he would regale visitors with stories of pioneer days. To get there, friends would often take the trolley to Madison Park, then rent a canoe or rowboat and cross Union Bay. Surber was still living in his Laurelhurst house when he died in 1923 at 89. Surber is buried at Seattle’s historic Lake View Cemetery on Capitol Hill, near many pioneers who enjoyed his good company. 

Details About Large Home And Accessory Structures Being Built On Surber Drive

Home and additional structures under construction at 3939 NE Surber Drive

Architects drawing of completed structures

(courtesy of Tyler Engle website)

Several Blog readers have sent email about a very large modern home under construction  3939 NE Surber Drive.
 
One neighbor, after reading the recent Blog post detailing last week's Public Hearing on  side yard/backyard houses on undersized lots in SF zone and proposed building code changes  in the neighborhood and around the City, wrote about the multiple buildings going up on the property:

How about the enormous modern house being into a lot skinny lot?  That is very disturbing.

One Home Per Lot.  a city-wide grassroots group monitoring large homes built on side and backyards of existing homes, told us that actually the development, located on the edge of Lake Washington, is not actually a short-plat, a splitting of one lot into two lots, or a backyard / side yard house, it is a huge house being squeezed in between the two other big houses on either side.  The lot size is 35,281 square feet, "very big" the group said. 
 
The former owner demolished the original house in 2005 and the new owner iwho bought the house a year later, is building a new house on the existing lot, with three detached accessory structures, a garage, a kayak storage space, a pool and a pool room, One Home Per Lot told us.

 
DPD (Department of Planning and Development) describes the project, which has been going on for about nine years as: 

Establish use as single family dwelling and construct one family dwelling with detached accessory structures (garage, kayak storage, pool and pool room).

 

Along with the change in owners in 2006 came a change in the plans for the project according to these details provided by One Home Per Lot:

• 11/14/05 Single family residence demolished by RALPH L SWANSON, who purchased the property in 2005. Demolition included the removal of contaminated soil from underground fuel storage tank.
• 11/14/05 Permit issued to construct Single Family Residence per plan.
• 12/12/06 The permit expired; the house was not complete.
• RONALD K TANEMURA & TINA M YAMAGIWA took over the project in 2006
• 6/6/08 Land Use Application to allow a new, two story, 7,003 sq. ft. single family residence in an environmentally critical area. Parking for three vehicles will be provided in a detached garage.
• The applicable permits have been renewed ever since.
• The contractors/architects changed with the plans. The current architect/contractor is Tyler Engle Architects whose plans  of putting a big house on a big lot, squeezed in between two other big houses on big lots can be viewed here.

DPD listings for this project can be found here:

- http://web1.seattle.gov/DPD/permitstatus/Address.aspx?addr=3939,NE,SURBER,DR,

 

- http://web1.seattle.gov/DPD/permitstatus/Project.aspx?id=6284704

- http://web1.seattle.gov/DPD/permitstatus/Project.aspx?id=3009257