WEDNESDAY: Will West Seattle’s Cettolin House be designated as a city landmark?

(Photo from landmark-nomination packet)

A month and a half after deciding to consider city-landmark status for the Cettolin House in West Seattle, the city Landmarks Preservation Board is expected to decide tomorrow (Wednesday, April 19th) whether to recommend designating it as a landmark. The 3:30 pm meeting is open, with public comment, at City Hall or online; here’s the agenda, which explains how to access the meeting and how to sign up to comment. The Cettolin House at 4022 32nd SW was built by steelworker Fausto Cettolin on nights and weekends between 1926 and 1939; he and wife Erma Cettolin, Italian immigrants, raised six children in the house, and died three years apart in the 1960s. The staff report for tomorrow’s meeting suggests that the site and exterior of the house meet three standards for landmark designation:

C. It is associated in a significant way with a significant aspect of the cultural, political, or economic heritage of the community, City, state or nation.

D. It embodies the distinctive visible characteristics of an architectural style, or period, or a method of construction.

E. It is an outstanding work of a designer or builder.

You can see images of its exterior and interior in this presentation for tomorrow’s meeting, and read about its history (with a hefty helping of West Seattle history) in the nomination document. For a shorter summary, see this Seattle Now & Then story by West Seattle journalist/historian Clay Eals, published last October.

WEDNESDAY 5:08 PM UPDATE: The designation was approved unanimously. Separate story this evening.

24 Replies to "WEDNESDAY: Will West Seattle's Cettolin House be designated as a city landmark?"

  • Lucian Smith April 18, 2023 (9:38 pm)

    Something’s off about the HTML in this article–I can see the picture, but the text starts with “a href=”https://westseattleblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Screen-Shot-2023-01-31-at-10.22.58-AM-e1675189990987.png”>”

    • WSB April 18, 2023 (10:46 pm)

      Thanks for catching that, amazing what just one missing character can do. Fixed.

  • waikikigirl April 19, 2023 (7:03 am)

    This is just amazing, just amazing! I love that there are so many pictures and the history behind the house and how 1 man built this house after working all day at the Steel Mill all for the love of his family and to live in America. Can you imagine the sounds of all those children playing in the house and yard and the smells of the food coming from the kitchen… and that one picture that made me laugh of the 2 girls sitting in that bush!

    Thank you so much WSB for this story. 

  • East Vashon April 19, 2023 (7:56 am)

    Nothing noted about how this is seen by many as another example of blatant obstructionism, and weaponizing the historical process to block a potential light rail route.There is nothing remarkable about this particular house, its not visited as a landmark currently, and its not unique overall. The only purpose of this nomination ( after decades available for said nomination) is to block a transit route.

    • Lindsey April 19, 2023 (9:41 am)

      Yeah, this doesn’t seem like a significant cultural piece of architecture. I hope the landmark board sees this NIMBY stunt for what it is.

      • CarDriver April 19, 2023 (11:21 am)

        Lindsey/East Vashon. Clearly you both have a financial stake in light rail. Am i not correct that you feel NOTHING is worth saving if it impedes light rail? I’m sure if they come to bulldoze your home you’ll happily move as your home is “nothing special and certainly not worth saving.” 

    • reed April 19, 2023 (10:08 am)

      Agree, but I’m pretty sure WSB pointed out in a previous post about this that landmark designation doesn’t preclude it from being razed to put in light rail.

    • jayspeidell April 19, 2023 (12:08 pm)

      It’s so sad to see people weaponizing systems like this because it means that actual landmarks will be harder to protect. And it’s going to waste so much of our tax money that should be spent on infrastructure. NIMBYs need to learn the value in building and creating versus obstructing and holding onto nostalgia for a past that doesn’t help today’s society.

    • Andros April 19, 2023 (2:00 pm)

      There is a lot remarkable about this house. When my wife and myself first moved to Seattle in ‘93, we rented a basement apartment down the street from this house. We had a nickname for it…long forgotten now, but it’s one of a kind in W. Seattle and I’m glad to learn of its cool history. I always wished I could have lived in it. Hearing you say this they are just doing this to block a light-rail line is foolery. There are plenty of alternatives to this line, and honestly we don’t even rate over in W Seattle since it’s going to take another 10 years for that line to even be realized. Pack up and move to Bellevue if you’re not happy. 

  • Diane April 19, 2023 (9:35 am)

    Beautiful home and great story behind it, I hope it gets the landmark status.  We need to preserve beautiful architecture.

    • Derek April 19, 2023 (3:46 pm)

      As long as it can be lifted out of the way and does not affect transit construction. Otherwise pass on it. 

  • D-Ridge April 19, 2023 (9:53 am)

    Every home has a story, doesn’t mean we need to preserve this one just to spite the construction of a vital section of mass transit

    • bwwestseattle April 19, 2023 (10:34 am)

      West Seattle used to be a really awesome place to grow up. Now with all of the apartment monstrosities being built the small town feel is all but gone. Adding a light rail will only further that. Unfortunately, there are people that think adding a light rail that will only benefit the few is a good idea. 

      • Patty April 19, 2023 (11:07 am)

        Odd that these apartments with 200+ rooms are constantly rented out and that the buses are typically filled. I think plenty of people will benefit from mass transit, much more than those that don’t want growth and for people to have anywhere to live because “the small town feel,” is more important than housing.

        When I moved here I had a pharmacists complain about the exact same thing to me when picking up a prescription. Guess who lived in one of those “monstrosities.” Definitely wasn’t welcoming feeling and taught me those over the age 40 would probably look down on me because my home “ruined” the area.

        The fact is, without those apartments WS would have very few people moving in, visiting, and shopping at businesses. It would still be an isolated area people didn’t know existed dedicated to repair shops and industrial companies. 

        • jayspeidell April 19, 2023 (12:22 pm)

          When I lived in an apartment in Admiral my NIMBY neighbors were so nasty and disrespectful. I interacted with them as little as possible because it was very rare that they’d say something nice. They had a real problem with me parking on the street and would even call in fake parking complaints that actually resulted in a few bad tickets that I had to fight, like blocking a crosswalk that didn’t actually exist in the middle of a block. Once a tree fell on my car and the homeowner was super nasty to me and said I needed to keep a better eye on my car, while I was still moving it every three days even with extreme pain from a back surgery recovery. In much of  West Seattle there’s definitely an unfortunate atmosphere of “if you aren’t like me, you do not belong here.” But it’s changing as more people move here. I fully support more density and transit.

      • D-Ridge April 19, 2023 (11:41 am)

        Somehow west Seattle isn’t a small town anymore because there are tons of people and apartments, but the mass transit to serve all these people would only “benefit a few?” How does that thinking work?

        • bwwestseattle April 19, 2023 (4:20 pm)

          Shocking that I have to explain this, but I’ll give it a go. Between the large number of people that drive their own vehicles, work in west Seattle and work from home. Yes the vast majority of people would not be using the light rail. I hope you can understand this from a clearly very narrow perspective. Have a great day. 

  • anonyme April 19, 2023 (10:35 am)

    Yes, please save this house.  There’s no such thing as quality, artisanal construction anymore, and if this house is razed by developers it will be replaced with garbage.  Beauty and craftsmanship have inherent value that too many fail to recognize.  Mass transit, far from having a definitive design plan, is not a reason to hurry the process of wanton destruction. 

  • RLV April 19, 2023 (1:32 pm)

    Thanks for sharing a link to the presentation – what a gorgeous place, built with care, patience, and love.  

  • Hummer April 19, 2023 (1:42 pm)

    Reading “East Vashon’s” comment, I can’t help but get a smirk! It’s easy for you to comment, given you see yourself safely tucked away on an island void of the rapid transit wrecking ball.I bet the shoe would be on the other foot if Washington State Ferries decided to bulldoze your house to build a new ferry dock.

    • Derek April 19, 2023 (4:01 pm)

      They are effected by transit too, if they come to work and want to ferry then bus-to-train over to a job or something? MAss transit benefits all. Some house, does not. 

  • Alki resident April 19, 2023 (3:28 pm)

    My friends live a few houses up from the house on the same side. They came from out of the area to buy their home and both work in West Seattle. They’re not happy they have their house torn down for light rail and I dont blame them. The house mentioned in this post is absolutely stunning and I cant imagine it being destroyed because of light rail. I wonder if the owners have thought of opening a bed and breakfast in it. We certainly don’t have many in our area like that. Best of luck keeping this gem as a landmark. We would be incredibly fortunate to have such a gorgeous house in our area like this one. On a side note: East Vashon had as much compassion about keeping this house around as I did about throwing my cheeseburger wrapper away earlier. I can’t imagine commenting on something that means nothing to me. 

  • WSB April 19, 2023 (5:10 pm)

    The board just approved the designation. Separate story this evening. Regarding the question of whether that would affect light-rail routing or not, I still have an inquiry out with ST, although they also have pointed me to a section of the Draft EIS which addresses “historic resources” in general.
    https://www.soundtransit.org/sites/default/files/documents/4b-wsble-drafteis-chapter4-4.2-aff-env-env-consequences-west-seattle-202201.pdf

  • Scarlett April 19, 2023 (8:20 pm)

    One can be in favor of mass transit and housing density and believe that this WS light rail line is an absurd, enormously expensive redundacy based on unrealistic projections.  Look for example at Central Link and the explosion of growth around light stations and the paltry ridership numbers.  You can find examples of this in many cities where “pie in the sky” light rail has been rolled out.  

Sorry, comment time is over.