UPDATE: Fire in vacant Highland Park house on redevelopment site

7:47 AM: SFD is just arriving at what’s described as a vacant building where a fire is burning, at 9th/Henderson. Updates to come.

7:50 AM: Firefighters say this is a vacant house and the fire appears to have originated in the basement.

7:55 AM: Both lanes of 9th SW are blocked by the response.

8:04 AM: They’ve “knocked down” the fire enough to search inside the house. So far they haven’t found any signs of the fire extending beyond what they’ve already extinguished.

(Added: WSB photo)

8:10 AM: Fire’s out. Firefighters tell us at the scene that their investigator is on the way to find out what happened. No one was in the house when firefighters arrived, and so no injuries are reported. Photo added. Some SFD units are being dismissed.

(Added: Photo by Tim Durkan)

8:26 AM: Records show the house is on a large lot – 12,000+ square feet – that sold to an LLC last year for $1.1 million. There’s a redevelopment proposal making its way through the city system, for 12 townhouses. (added) Records show the demolition permit was issued months ago.

8:48 PM: Police just told dispatch that 9th is open again.

ADDED: We followed up with SFD, Here’s what spokesperson David Cuerpo told us: “Firefighters extinguished a basement fire in a vacant residential building. No injuries were reported. Fire investigators ruled the incident as incendiary (intentionally set) and forwarded their findings to SPD.”

KayK October 14, 2023 (7:54 am)

They sure have a lot of units there.

datamuse October 14, 2023 (8:01 am)

There are a few houses right there that have been vacant for years and years. Tbh I’ve been expecting something like this for awhile.

WSB October 14, 2023 (8:09 am)

My partner just arrived and says it’s a graffiti-covered house across from the former Morning Star. The log has updated the address to a specific house after starting as simply “9th/Henderson”:
https://web.seattle.gov/sfd/realtime911/getRecsForDatePub.asp?action=Today&incDate=&rad1=des
- datamuse October 14, 2023 (8:12 am)
  
  Yep, I know the one. One of the old Rowe houses, I believe—someone with a stronger grasp of Highland Park history will know more. It’s too bad, that used to be a pretty nice house.
  - WSB October 14, 2023 (8:17 am)
    
    Added a photo. We don’t usually show tags but no time to spend blurring when it’s a breaking situation. Update: They’re changing the address on the log again, so never mind the previous one.
  - Annoyed at Rowe October 14, 2023 (9:04 am)
    
    Yes, it was one of the Rowe houses. For those wondering, Harvey Rowe basically hoarded a bunch of houses in Highland Park (and a couple properties in White Center). Most were kept vacant but not sold because he didn’t want “greedy developers” to tear them down. Instead they became derelict, overgrown, and a complete blight on the neighborhood. He died a few years back and the properties started being sold (many to developers, because they’re tear-downs due to neglect). Why some people are more afraid of developers than empty, derelict houses with squatters is something I will never understand, but nothing will make your neighbors more pro-development urbanists than taking the route Harvey did to “stop” new construction.
    - Alan October 14, 2023 (10:30 am)
      
      That house was originally in Georgetown and was moved up to Highland Park. Harvey and his mother lived in that house, starting around 1943. Harvey never left, as far as I could tell. That home was the address listed on all of his other properties for the tax documents. His mother was still listed as owner in 2014 when I was researching this. She would have been 103 at the time.
    - Alan October 14, 2023 (10:56 am)
      
      Years ago, I realized that every derelict house that I noticed was owned by the same person, so I started looking for his (Rowe’s) properties. I documented them on a web page that I thought I had already deleted. Some of the links are now missing, but much is still there. I’ll probably go back and delete it soon since Harvey is no longer in the picture. https://walkingriverview.wordpress.com/history/empty-houses-rowe-houses/
    - datamuse October 14, 2023 (1:30 pm)
      
      Hi Alan, I think I read your site many years ago and that’s where I learned about these–but my memory was pretty vague as you can see. ;)
    - Alan October 14, 2023 (3:32 pm)
      
      You did well! Part of why I documented everything was because I can’t remember specifics from 10 days ago, let alone 10 years. Ironically I had just deleted the Google Map that I had created of all his properties.
    - BitRot October 15, 2023 (1:55 am)
      
      @Alan, the link you provided leads to a 404. has this page also been deleted? what’s the reason you’ve been deleting your old work? is there a lack a resources? it’s a shame to lose digital history.
    - MKY October 15, 2023 (12:53 pm)
      
      I live a few blocks away from the row of Rowe houses. In the fall of 2019 I was walking my old dog by the houses, wearing my Montana Griz cap. An older gentleman was out sweeping the sidewalk. He noticed my Griz hat and said he went to the University of Montana (back then Montana State University). Had a nice chat with him about common ties we had in Montana. I introduced myself, then he introduced himself as Harvey. I was taken aback. I had read @Alan s website and was familiar with the history, and neighborhood rumors were that he had died a few years before. Not so, he died the next year.
    - WSB October 15, 2023 (1:23 pm)
      
      2021, per this:
      https://www.emmickfunerals.com/obituary/Victor-Rowe

KayK October 14, 2023 (8:23 am)

Yes has the bones of a big Queen Anne style – a very early house in the area. Right on the old Lake Burien trolley line. Now upzoned and in development limbo.

WSB October 14, 2023 (8:29 am)

Just looked that up. 12-townhouse plan, 12,000+ sf lot.

Neil October 14, 2023 (8:30 am)

I just went by there yesterday, and was thinking how it would be nice to fix that up into a haunted house for Halloween.

RAJR October 14, 2023 (12:02 pm)

How sad. That looks like it had the potential to be restored into a beautiful home. If it’s going to be redeveloped I hope it’s for affordable housing.

Gill & Alex October 14, 2023 (12:17 pm)

We’ve driving by that group of houses for years thinking the next time we drove by we would see what just happened as it seemed like a perfect place for homeless to “live”. By the way, Alan, we could not get access to your website.

Alan October 15, 2023 (12:28 am)

Sorry, I just realized that WordPress will show me the page but it has in fact been deleted.

Odd son October 14, 2023 (1:56 pm)

I wonder why the city allows houses to sit like this for years. I remember an ongoing issue with a house on Morgan near35th around 15 years ago. I was reported here. The house had squatters and eventually caught fire despite neighbors working with the city and landlord.

Alan documented another issue with multiple houses. I think that landlord had houses around UW that were in the news around 10 years ago. Plenty of other examples in WS.

WSB October 14, 2023 (3:58 pm)

I don’t think they’re “allowing” it – files show numerous violation notices – I’ll have to check court files to see if anything was taken further.
- Odd son October 14, 2023 (4:12 pm)
  
  I have filed complaints on vacant properties in WS in the past and was told by SDCI there’s nothing the city can do. That’s allowing it in my opinion.
JTM October 15, 2023 (4:55 pm)

You’ll be happy to know that after that house (on Morgan near 35th) was pretty much burned down, it was renovated/flipped, and then I bought it. I get a kick out of reading the old complaints to the city but am glad we’ve lived here long enough that I no longer need to introduce myself as the guy who bought “that house on the corner, yeah…that one.”

No-rowe October 14, 2023 (4:31 pm)

Mr. Rowe also owned empty derelict houses in Admiral, Pigeon Hill and Highland Park that were sold after his death and have now been redeveloped. He refused to rent them to even those he knew and neighbors. I believe the burned house was his last residence.

Nab October 14, 2023 (5:40 pm)

We were good friends of Harvey’s. In spite of what everyone thinks, he was a very good man. He would rent his houses out to people who were low income. Many would trash the houses and he would come along, pull the nails , straighten and reuse them fixing up the houses to rerent them.. You all should realize that he also came out of the depression era. His mom made it into a boarding house. He had many stories. And, I am not suggesting that his lack of property upkeep was okay but I did want those read this to know what a good person he was. Harvey had been a pilot for Pan Am Airlines and flew all over the world.

Alan October 15, 2023 (12:43 am)

Harvey cut the lawns of his properties for years and he was friendly when I walked by. I know that he was active in the Lions Club and he probably had good intent but VERY few of his properties were rented. His renters did seem to be fiercely loyal. I had hoped that I would find some sort of story that would explain what he was doing but none emerged. He was very much West Seattle’s Sam Israel (For those that don’t understand the reference: https://www.wsjhs.org/museum/organizations/samis/samis-samuel-israel.html)
WS Res October 15, 2023 (8:27 am)

People can be good, kind people and still make bad decisions. Hoarding properties and letting them fall derelict while sitting empty is a really bad choice, not so different from commercial property owners who ask for disproportionately high rents to make their portfolio look valuable and then wind up with empty, boarded up storefronts that harm neighborhoods. In this case, who knows the motive and it sounds like it wasn’t rent-seeking per se, but perhaps hoarding property as “investments” while people are unhoused and housing costs surge due to scarcity isn’t such a great idea.

Buncake October 15, 2023 (12:26 am)

Those houses have been a stain on the neighborhood for a long time junkies squatters have been living in there doing all kinds of bad things. Probably haunted too..I honestly think the owner who is now passed left them derelict as a protest against gentrification and didn’t want candos built on top of them this is a neighborhood you know. We don’t need congestion and more apptment building slum lords. With bug and rat infested walls.. Sure knock that house down but build a new one for a nice family but make sure to do an exorcism first that property is a baddy