If you value this coverage and want to support the continued independence of Central District News, please subscribe today for as little as $5/month — DRIVE ENDS SEPTEMBER 30.

The Landmarks Preservation Board is considering a landmark nomination for the Judge Ronald House, at 421 30^th Ave S. (30th and Jackson). The board will hold a meeting to discuss the nomination on Wednesday, October 16 at 3:30 p.m. in the Seattle Municipal Tower, 700 5^th Avenue, 40th Floor in Room 4060.

Judge Ronald House, courtesy of the Landmarks Preservation Board.

The Leschi home once belonged to James T. Ronald, a former Seattle mayor and King County Superior Court judge who retired from the bench in 1949. The home is already registered as a national historic landmark; placing it on the city’s list of landmark designations would protect it by city ordinance. The home was built in the 1880s in Neoclassical Revival style.

The application has more information on the home:

Judge J.T. Ronald purchased the house on Rainier Street, now called 30th Avenue South, in 1889 and then renovated and expanded it into the unique Neoclassical mansion that you see there today. Renovations were completed by 1904, in time for his daughter, Eva’s wedding in June of 1905. According to Ronald’s granddaughter (Eva Benson’s daughter), Betty Runstad,(1913 – 2008), this mansion was the hub of cultural and political events in Seattle’s early history, as the site of concerts, lectures and meetings.

Listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1975, the current owner has undertaken efforts to restore the house and a City of Seattle Landmark Designation would make it possible to further these efforts and better protect the house from future deterioration and historically detrimental alterations.

For more information on the home’s history and architecture, check out the full nomination application.

The nomination meeting is open to the public. Or, you can submit written comments to  the Landmarks Preservation Board by 5:00 p.m. on October 15 at the following address: Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board, Seattle Dept. of Neighborhoods, P.O. Box 94649, Seattle WA, 98124-4649.

If you value this coverage and want to support the continued independence of Central District News, please subscribe today for as little as $5/month — DRIVE ENDS SEPTEMBER 30.