Check out this latest installment of our Fremont house history series by Valarie Bunn, which covers one of the oldest homes still standing in Fremont. The home, known as the Fitch-Nutt House, is located in Upper Fremont at 4401 Phinney Ave. N. and was designated a Seattle landmark in 2007. Fremont Neighbor recently stopped by to photograph the house, which appears unoccupied. Renters have occupied the house during most of its history.
4401 Phinney Ave North
The house at 4401 Phinney Avenue North is one of the oldest buildings in the north part of Fremont and has been preserved with few changes since it was built in the year 1900.
In early Fremont development as of the 1890s, most residences were built closer to the first streets of North 34th, 35th, and 36th. One other early house in Fremont which has survived, is at 911 North 36th Street, a few steps east of the Troll.
The house at 4401 Phinney Avenue North sits on the edge of a steep slope with a good western view. It is an example of a residence built by a skilled carpenter, Jackson D. Fitch, who had just arrived from Illinois. Probably this is why the house is of a type found in Iowa, Indiana, and Illinois. The house style is Folk Victorian, which is rare in Seattle. It has three “bays” (sections) with a central recessed porch entry.
As he grew older, Jackson Fitch transitioned from doing carpentry work himself, to working as a contractor who would buy land and coordinate building projects. Throughout his life he moved from state to state. He left Washington State in the early 1900s and died in 1935 in New Mexico.
Thomas W. Nutt from Tennessee bought the 4401 Phinney house in 1902. Like Jackson Fitch, he was a carpenter who came from out of state (Tennessee) and may have been attracted to Seattle by word of the booming economy, with plenty of work for carpenters. Construction permits show that he was the one who added the house’s balcony and distinctive gable dormers with cutout details in the barge boards. Also like Jackson Fitch, Thomas Nutt only lived in Seattle for a few years; he died in Arizona in 1937.
In 2007 the house at 4401 Phinney was presented to the Seattle Landmarks Board for historic preservation, calling it the Fitch-Nutt House. The “landmarking” criteria were that the house embodies the distinctive visible characteristics of an architectural style; that the house is an easily identifiable visual feature of the neighborhood and contributes to the distinctive quality or identity of Fremont. The Fitch-Nutt House continues to delight the eye with its dollhouse-like appearance.
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