On July 19, 2023, Seattle's Landmarks Preservation Board gives landmark status to the home of Katharine (Kay) and Charles Stimson (Stim) Bullitt, located at 1125 Harvard Avenue E. Before Stim Bullitt purchased the lot in 1952, it was home to two prominent Seattle families. The first was railroad magnate and art lover H.C. Henry, who had built a house on the lot in 1893. In 1926, two years before his death, Henry donated his extensive art collection to the University of Washington to form the Henry Art Gallery. Henry’s nextdoor neighbor was lumberman Julius H. Bloedel, whose heirs purchased the adjoining Henry property in 1935, selling the lot in the early 1950s to Stim Bullitt. In 1955, a year after his marriage to Kay, Stim hired architect Fred Bassetti to design a house and retained San Francisco landscape architect Garrett Eckbo for the exterior. For the next 66 years, the house was a staging ground for countless social and political events. In 1972, the couple established a life estate giving the property to the city for a public park upon the death of the last surviving resident. The Bullitts divorced in 1979, but Kay continued to live in the house until her death on August 22, 2021. The city acquired the Harvard Avenue property in December 2021.
The Bullitt Family Home
Yale-educated attorney and businessman Charles Stimson (Stim) Bullitt (1919-2009) was the son of real-estate developers and the founders of King Broadcasting Company and part of the well-connected Bullitt family. In 1952, while married to poet Carolyn Ashley Kizer (1925-2014), he purchased 1.6 acres on Seattle’s Capitol Hill, planning to hire well-known architect Paul Thiry (1904-1993) to design a house. When Kizer filed for divorce in December 1953, the idea was put on the back burner.
In 1954, during his second unsuccessful race for a congressional seat, Stim met former teacher Katharine (Kay) Muller Bullitt (1925-2021), who had arrived from Boston a few years earlier. The two hit it off and were married later that year. In 1955, Stim revisited his plans to build a house at 1125 Harvard Avenue E, and the couple decided to hire architect Fred Bassetti (1917-2013), whom they had met at community organizing events. Bassetti, a leader in midcentury-modern design, created a home with three distinct sections: A-frame wing, central entry space, and bedroom wing. The A-frame, similar to a ski chalet, was a style that resonated with Stim, who was an avid skier and mountaineer. It was, however, an unusual design choice for a family home and contrasted dramatically with the grander, more traditional homes in the neighborhood.
With its vaulted ceilings and skylights, the house offered large open spaces and plenty of natural light. The main room was anchored by a massive stone fireplace while wood paneling and built-in bookcases completed the look. Originally designed with four bedrooms, the Bullitts added two more bedrooms to the east wing in 1956. The home, nestled on the northern edges of the property, was barely visible from the street.
San Francisco landscape architect Garrett Eckbo (1910-2000) was hired to design the site’s landscaping. Just as Bassetti embodied modernist architecture, Eckbo is widely regarded as the father of modernist landscape design. For the Bullitt project, he included planting strips around the house’s entrance and concrete stepping stones in the back yard. Most of the large yard was left open so it could be used for play and entertaining. In a tribute to Bullitt, journalist Sam R. Sperry wrote: "The house, and most especially the huge green-grass yard, became Kay’s 'stage.' Over the years, she would 'produce' gatherings large and small, open or by private invitation, parties and picnics, weddings and memorials, political fundraisers and campaign planning sessions, sanctuary to the ill and threatened. She was a convener" ("Making Waves …").
According to a 2023 report prepared by the Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board: "The yard is private, with the northern half devoted to plantings and views visible from inside the house and the southern half devoted to a mixture of current gardening efforts and decades of overgrowth. Nearest the house, the rear yard is primarily lawn, sometimes rolling, sometimes thinned under the canopy, and interspersed with stands of evergreen and deciduous trees and species of flowers, ferns, and shrubs typical of Northwest residential landscapes, including laurels, maples, camellia, rhododendron, japonica, roses, and flowering bulbs" (Landmarks Preservation Board report, 3).
A Hub for Social and Political Gatherings
The Bullitt home was a central feature of the couple’s lives. Beginning in 1958 and continuing for the next 55 years, every Wednesday night in July Kay would open the yard and house for an outdoor picnic where everyone was welcome. The house also served as the headquarters for the couple’s activist causes, attracting the political elite of Seattle who enjoyed being able to mix business with pleasure. Some of the organizations that met there were the Coalition for Quality Integrated Education, the Mayor’s Arts Festival (which grew into Bumbershoot), Urban League, Save Pike Place Market, Japanese American Citizens League, and Common Cause.
Stim and Kay Bullitt divorced in 1979, three years after Stim moved out. Kay continued to live in the house until her death in 2021 at the age of 96. In 1972, the couple filed a quit claim deed that gave the property to the City of Seattle as a life estate, which meant they would have full use of the house and grounds while living and passing the house to the city upon the death of the last surviving resident. The city formally accepted the gift in 1992 as Seattle City Ordinance 116164.
Two Prominent Pioneer Families
Decades before Stim Bullitt purchased the Harvard Avenue lot, two other prominent Seattle families resided on the property. The first was Vermont native H. C. Henry (1844–1928), a railroad tycoon and financier. In 1890, Henry signed a contract with the Northern Pacific Railway to extend the railroad to Washington. When he arrived in Seattle, he found a hubbub of activity in the wake of the Great Fire. Inspired by the city’s can-do spirit, Henry asked his wife and family to join him. After renting a home on Capitol Hill, he purchased a lot nearby that overlooked Lake Union.
The Henrys moved into their new home at the corner of Harvard Avenue and Prospect Street in 1893; two years later it burned to the ground. Although the family lost most of their possessions and documents, their growing art collection was spared. A second house, built in 1904, was updated in 1917 to include a dedicated art gallery to showcase the family’s growing collection; the gallery was opened to the public two days a week. When he was in his eighties, Henry willed his art collection and $100,000 to the University of Washington to establish the Henry Art Gallery. In 1935, his sons donated the property to the City of Seattle for a new public library. The house was demolished before the city decided to build the library elsewhere. The empty lot on Harvard Avenue was purchased by the neighbors to the north – the Bloedel family.
Julius H. Bloedel (1864-1957) made his fortune in timber. Like Henry, he also arrived in the Northwest in 1890, leaving Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, to settle in Bellingham. There, with his partner J. J. Donovan, he founded the Lake Whatcom Logging Co. in 1898. The business grew into a multimillion-dollar empire as one of the nation's largest producers of shingles and lumber. It was Bloedel’s son Prentice Bloedel (1900-1996), best known for founding the Bloedel Reserve on Bainbridge Island with his wife Virginia, who sold the property to Stim Bullitt in 1952.
Future Capitol Hill Park
After residing on Harvard Avenue for 66 years, Kay Bullitt died at home on August 22, 2021. In December 2021, the city took possession of the property. Upon inspection, Seattle Parks & Recreation discovered that the roof had leaked and the retaining walls had deteriorated significantly. To keep the garden and lawns under control, the nonprofit group Plant Amnesty, whose volunteers had provided landscape maintenance during the last years of Bullitt's life, was asked to stay on.
On July 19, 2023, Seattle's Landmarks Preservation Board designated the house a historic landmark, specifying that any renovations to the property must preserve the site, house exterior, and portions of the interior that included the bedrooms, main foyer, and the A-frame structure (which excluded the kitchen, bathroom, and basement). To enlist public input about the property’s future, open houses were held and more than 600 people responded to a survey. The city planned to open a segment of the garden and lawn area in late 2025, with full park access available in 2029 at the earliest.
