Builder Loren Elsworth Baldwin, 91, Who `Helped Seattle Grow'

At one time or another, thousands of people owed the roofs over their heads to Loren Elsworth Baldwin, a prolific Northwest homebuilder who put up houses from Alaska to Illinois.

He died Saturday of cancer at the age of 91. He had been living at the Parkshore retirement community the past two years.

A Seattle resident and building contractor since 1931, Mr. Baldwin's work earned him high regard.

An article published on The Seattle Times editorial page in 1957 referred to the Kennewick native as "one of the men who helped Seattle grow."

That distinction was accurate, said his daughter, Janet Baldwin Nast of White Plains, N.Y.

Mr. Baldwin, along with his business partner, Walter Nettleton, produced prefabricated buildings for the war effort in 1942 at a South End plant.

And the duo pioneered the urbanization of the First Hill neighborhood in the mid-1940s.

They bought and renovated several apartment buildings there, including one at 1000 Eighth Ave., now known as The Nettleton. At one time it was the largest apartment building west of the Mississippi River. They also refurbished the 19-story apartment building at 900 University Street. Once called The Baldwin, it later became The Horizon House.

The impetus behind Mr. Baldwin's work on First Hill came from his deeply held belief that Seattle was destined to become "the center of the Pacific Coast," his daughter said. As a first-class urban city, Seattle would need to look like one.

There were also more personal reasons for Mr. Baldwin's interest in building, Nast said: "He loved the sense that he could make things grow."

One of Mr. Baldwin's largest projects was a residential development at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in 1948 - some 10,000 homes for Hanford workers and their families.

He also built homes at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage, in 1952, and in Aurora, Ill., before moving to Seattle. When he lived in Illinois, Mr. Baldwin tried his luck at semi-pro football before entering the contracting business.

He retired gradually in the 1970s.

When the good-natured, 6-foot-4 Mr. Baldwin wasn't working, he was fishing, gardening or traveling with his wife, Hazel Wagoner Baldwin, his high-school sweetheart. They were married in 1927.

Much of Mr. Baldwin's traveling was related to his effort to trace his family's history in Great Britain, according to his daughter-in-law, Trudy Baldwin of Seattle. He wrote many lively reports on the subject.

An avid gardener, Mr. Baldwin grew an abundance of roses at his homes in the Windermere and Broadmoor neighborhoods. "His sense of beauty was expressed through his gardening," Nast said.

Mr. Baldwin also loved dominoes. His longtime partner in the "49 Club" for domino players was former King County prosecutor and Superior Court Judge Lloyd Shorett, who died last month at age 86.

Besides his wife, daughter and daughter-in-law; Mr. Baldwin is survived by a sister, Beulah Booth of Wilsonville, Ore., and six grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

At his request, there were no memorial services. But remembrances can be sent to the Puget Sound Blood Center, 921 Terry Ave., Seattle, WA 98104, which Mr. Baldwin and Mr. Nettleton helped found in 1945.