Life and Times in Leschi: the Judge Ronald House
- Roger Lippman
- 1 hour ago
- 3 min read
Late in the nineteenth century, the desirable part of the neighborhood later to be called Leschi was on the precipice of Mount Baker Ridge, then known as Rainier Heights. That was considered to be the best view property. People of some means built their homes there, especially along 30th Avenue South, which was called Rainier Street until Seattle’s comprehensive street renaming of 1895. Some of those fine, large structures remain to this day, among them the one now known as Judge Ronald House.
James T. Ronald was not the builder, but he bought the home not long after the Great Seattle Fire of June 6, 1889. He hired a Virginia architect to remodel what was originally a small house, spending $30,000 on the project.
When he was done, the living room, 36 feet long, took up one side of the home. Also added was a library with a horizontal band of painted hunting scenes, commissioned by Mr. Ronald, at the top of the walls. The four distinctive columns in the front suggest the character of a Southern plantation, reflecting his family’s Virginia ancestry. The renovations were completed by 1904, in time for his daughter Eva’s wedding the following year. A 1913 photo shows a semi-circular porch, which would have had a magnificent view of Mt. Rainier, atop the first floor on the south side. That porch remained until at least the late 1930s but was gone by 1965.
Judge Ronald (appointed to the bench in 1909) sold the house in about 1930, and a family named Babcock ran it as a select boarding house. Classified ads in 1940-1941 offered room and board (“excellent meals”) for young businessmen and women at Tara Hospitality House. In September 1941, the City Planning Commission rejected an application to convert the building into an apartment house. By 1944 it catered to Boeing workers, all of them male.
In 1955, however, a permit was granted to a C. S. Risvold for conversion of the property into a six-unit apartment house. The building was described in a 1957 Seattle Times article as a children’s day nursery. In that story, the Times mentioned that a laborer who worked there was arrested for murder. He had at least 20 prior arrests, including two for manslaughter.
At some point the house became a residence for “young men down on their luck,” according to the Times.
Then, in December 1966, a non-profit group called In-As-Much (a part of the human services agency Pioneer Industries) leased the building for use as a halfway house for male parolees and probationers, with space for 28 residents. A parole officer had his office in the building, which became known as Ronald Hall. The organization was founded by a lawyer who had tried cases in Judge Ronald’s courtroom. He also knew something about parolees, having been one himself: he had been convicted of misappropriation of client funds and served 20 months in state prison.
The house later became a home for women. In 1970, Pioneer turned the premises over to the Washington Drug Rehabilitation Center, a church group. Eventually, it was sold to private owners and has changed hands a few times since.
The house was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1975 and designated as a City of Seattle landmark in 2014.
Numerous recent interior photos of the house are shown at https://seattledreamhomes.com/historic-judge-james-t-ronald-in-leschi-neighborhood-of-seattle.
Next month: the life of Judge Ronald
~Roger Lippman
The author writes monthly about Leschi history and his experiences over more than 50 years in the neighborhood.
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