The Fremont neighborhood began to be settled in the summer of 1888 and many of the earliest houses were built in a cleared area along present-day Whitman and Aurora Avenues. We know that there must have been water resources there, because Fremont had no City water system at that time. Each house had to have access to its own well-water.
The house at 911 North 36th Street is one of the oldest houses that we know of in Fremont, constructed about 1890. Few houses from that era in Fremont survive, due to street construction and re-building of houses in later times. The house was built by Victor C. Nelson, a Swedish immigrant who worked at driving a delivery wagon for Cascade Steam Laundry.
In the early 1900s the new owners of the house at 911 North 36th Street were two sisters, Inga & Agnes Knudsen from Norway. They established a dressmaking business which they operated out of the house, and they also took in boarders. We know that they had other relatives in Seattle as one of the boarders was listed as their nephew.
The house is described as Italianate style in the Queen Anne architectural category. A Queen Anne-style house has many varying surface projections such as window bays, and decorations such as gables and eaves supported by corbels. The Italianate style includes the tall narrow windows in the front bay, a style hearkening to the Renaissance architecture of Italy in the 1500s.
For more details about the 911 house, enter its address on the Seattle Historical Sites Index page.