A walk through Everett’s past

Published 9:00 pm Wednesday, September 7, 2005

A century ago Everett was an industrial boomtown of smoke-burping sawmills, seaside docks and warehouses, and rows of working-class houses, as well as many bars and the occasional whorehouse.

Above it all, brothers Wyatt and Bethel Rucker built one of the finest homes in early Everett on what is now known as Rucker Hill.

The Ruckers were civic leaders who had earned a tidy sum in land speculation and industry.

The brothers’ sumptuous 13,000-square-foot home with its ballroom and balconies came to embody the best of what Everett could be.

“If there was a house the city embraced as an embodiment of gracious living, it was the Rucker Mansion,” said David Dilgard, a history specialist at the Everett Public Library.

“It always seemed to the hold the imagination of the city.”

Even at the century mark, the house still does.

The public has a rare opportunity to peek inside this quintessential Everett home Saturday.

The mansion is the star of a tour featuring historic homes in the Port Gardener and Rucker Hill neighborhoods. It’s the first time in more than a decade this home has been open to the public.

The house was outfitted with the best of what was available at the time and much remains intact today.

It’s hard to pin one particular architectural style to this house and no one is sure who designed it, Dilgard said.

Tour organizers described it as “colonial revival bungalow.” It has a sweeping covered veranda with white columns, decorative cornices, a gabled roof and a rear porte-cochere.

Under the veranda is an enclosed conservatory with lava rocks and fountains that extends the length of the home.

In the entryway, a mirror covers the entire far wall. It made the perilous journey by ship from Europe around South America’s Cape Horn before the Panama Canal was built and was hauled by horse to the mansion.

Cut-velvet wall coverings from New York grace the entryway and visitors can push aside the same ornate curtain covering a coat closet that guests have for a century. Coffered ceilings crafted from quarter-sawn white oak line the ceiling.

Down below, a card room still has the stuffed cushions Everett bigwigs probably lounged on while waiting for their turn at the table.

A grand staircase twists up from the entry to a sitting area and five bedrooms. Above that, the fourth level is a ballroom with balconies for catching a breath of fresh air.

This home was likely the first in the Everett area to have an elevator, Dilgard said. The Ruckers’ mother lived at the home and it was probably built for her. It still works, making a reassuring mechanical “hmmmmm” as it steadily glides between floors.

When most homes didn’t have central heating or indoor plumbing, the Rucker Mansion had six plumbed bathrooms.

Three have Persian clawfoot soaking tubs. A bottom-level bathroom has the original toilet, upright shower and sitz bath (think bidet).

All of it works, although the owners said bathing in the upright shower – a circular contraption with metal arms – is a bit like being poked by pins and needles.

Along with shower levers for hot and cold there is another marked “liver,” which sends pressurized water shooting in that direction. Apparently, massaging the liver was believed to be healthy.

When the Ruckers built the mansion, it was the only home on the knoll in a preeminent position above the gritty mill town.

“You didn’t go over to the house, you ascended Rucker Hill,” Dilgard said.

The family kept horses and a neatly manicured lawn. Trails extended from the house to Forest Park.

The Ruckers got a regular dose of the cinders and smoke belching from the mills on the nearby waterfront. A mill they owned was visible from a top-story ballroom balcony.

Living in the mansion at that time “was like having 1,000 barbecues below your house,” Dilgard said.

That didn’t stop Rucker Hill from becoming the fashionable place to live, and other families built homes nearby.

Today the neighborhood is full of houses. What is now Laurel Drive was the carriage drive for the mansion. Metal rings for tying up horses are still visible along the road.

Despite its name, the Ruckers didn’t live in the house the longest. The Walton family lived there from 1923 until the early ’60s.

After a succession of owners, the Northwest Equity Investment Co. held the title in 1992 and threatened to raze it if a buyer wasn’t found. A couple bought the home, planning to turn it into a bed and breakfast.

When that plan failed, the house was sold again in 1997 to current owners Bob and Brenda Kerr for $650,000. They were newlyweds enchanted by the craftsmanship of the house.

It would be easy to get caught up in the romanticism of living in this fine old house but it’s a lot of work. There aren’t any live-in maids here today.

The Rucker Mansion is in good shape mainly because the owners and others before them poured their time and money into the upkeep.

At times, that upkeep has felt overwhelming, the Kerrs said. They replaced and refinished wood floors, installed a new roof and furnace, and cleaned out 100-year-old cedar gutters. They hand scraped vines that had snaked their way over most of the brick exterior and struggled to find someone to give them an estimate to repaint the massive house and its ornate gables. Brenda Kerr hand cut and laid mosaic tiles in a downstairs room to match existing flooring.

The Kerrs feel a responsibility to maintain the historical integrity of the house. They’ve spent a year and a small fortune remodeling the kitchen to appear as if it fits in a century-old house, hiding modern appliances behind custom cabinetry.

The pure grandeur of the house still leaves the couple in awe. They plan to live in the home as long as they are able to.

“You can’t quite take it all in,” said Bob Kerr, who described himself as a country boy from Texas. “We feel blessed. I am still pinching myself; is this really me living here?”

Reporter Debra Smith: 425-339-3197 or dsmith@heraldnet.com.