The brand new Ravenna-Cowen National Historic District is featured in today’s edition of the Daily Journal of Commerce! Larry and Lani spearheaded this undertaking, and along with a team of neighborhood volunteers researched, described, and categorized more than 400 homes.
Over the next few weeks we’ll be posting more about the designation process. In the meantime, you can read the DJC article here:
November 15, 2018
It’s official: Ravenna-Cowen area named National Historic District
Photo by John Stewart
This classic Craftsman bungalow is in the Ravenna-Cowen North National Historic District.
Ravenna-Cowen North in Seattle is Washington’s newest National Historic District.
The district is roughly bounded by Northeast 65th Street on the north, Ravenna ravine on the east, Ravenna and Cowen Parks on the south, and 12th Avenue Northeast on the west.
Friends of Ravenna-Cowen said in a release that the new district includes 443 homes, most built prior to the early 1930s. The character, scale and setting represent the period of population growth and home building that followed the 1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition at what is now the University of Washington, and lasted through the Great Depression of the late 1920s and 1930s.
The architectural styles in the district are mainly Craftsman, Tudor Revival and Colonial Revival. Many designs were taken directly from pattern books and kit home catalogs from the early 1900s to the 1930s.
The historic designation application was prepared by Friends of Ravenna-Cowen, a volunteer nonprofit focused on the heritage of the neighborhood.
Larry E. Johnson, a member of Friends and principal of The Johnson Partnership, worked pro bono as lead historian for the project.
The area was entered into the National Register of Historic Places on Sept. 13, after being approved by the WA Advisory Council for Historic Preservation, and added to the Washington Heritage Register.