Neighbors lose fight to save homes

A two-year fight to save two century-old houses on Eastlake Avenue East ended last week with their demolition.

Chris Leman, the houses' strongest advocate, wasn't there.

"I didn't want to watch," said Leman, who likened the houses' destruction to losing a close friend. "I think everyone in the neighborhood is very sad. (But) many of us had come to feel that there was no way to save them."

Now a pile of sticks, the neighboring houses at 1130 and 1134 Eastlake Ave. E. stood as a testament to Seattle's eclectic character. Small and sweet, their Victorian design, with French influences, made the homes unusual.

Leman, former president of the Eastlake Community Council, and others made many attempts to rescue the homes. They tried to get them registered as city landmarks. But in a split vote, the Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board concluded the homes weren't historically significant enough.

Next, converting them to low-income housing was considered, but owner Jose Shdo ultimately sold them to Kirkland-based developer Ted Schroth.

Although Schroth was willing to part with the houses if someone could move them, that proved to be too high a hurdle, in part because the houses would have to cross paths with Eastlake's electric-trolley lines. Similar moves have cost more than $100,000, Leman noted.

As a last resort, Leman looked into whether the houses could be taken away in pieces, but that, too, proved to be too expensive.

"It would have been by far the greatest fund raising ever that a neighborhood has done, to raise the money to move those houses," Leman said.

At one time, Leman hoped the houses could be part of the still-to-come Maritime Heritage Center. Locating them next to the Center for Wooden Boats at South Lake Union would have been ideal, he said. But again, moving costs were the stumbling block.

"I think they were always receptive to taking the houses in, and I think they always wanted to see our progress in trying to move them," Leman said. "They were encouraging, but it came down to the neighborhood's inability to find an affordable way to move the houses."

At last report, a six-story office building is planned for the leveled site.

"There's a small part of Seattle's history that has been lost to the march of progress," Leman said.

Still, he found a bit of comfort in the hope that there might be an afterlife for houses. Seattle Building Salvage came in before the demolition and recovered windows, doors and molding.

"So that's one way that the houses will live on in somebody else's house," Leman said.

Lisa Rivera's phone message number is 206-464-3665. Her e-mail address is lrivera@seattletimes.com.