King County Landmarks: Hilmar and Selma Steen House (1911), Vashon, Vashon Island

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Address: 10924 SW Cove Road, Vashon, Vashon Island. The Steen House, built in 1911 for Norwegian immigrants Hilmar and Selma Steen, is an outstanding example of Craftsman style architecture in rural King County. The large two-story house features a spacious inset porch, as well as corner bay windows with beveled glass in the upper sash, a clinker brick foundation and river rock bases for the porch piers. The remarkably unaltered interior of the house is trimmed with dark-stained fir. An elaborate art glass window lights the stair hall. When the house was built, Hilmar and his brothers were operating a lumber mill with a log pond and a short spur logging road on the logged-off property. The mill supplied the house with electricity, making it one of the earliest electrified houses on Vashon Island.
Sources: King County Landmarks and Heritage Commission.
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