Side Sewer Cards Reveal Residential Building Patterns in Wallingford
By Sarah Martin & Linda Sewell
Posted: April 2026
The City of Seattle’s side sewer records provide a wealth of information about how the Wallingford neighborhood developed in the early 20th century. A side sewer includes all the piping located outside the footprint of a building. The City kept records of when these systems were initially installed, beginning in the early 1900s just as the first residential building boom took off in Wallingford.
A database on the City’s website makes these records easily searchable by address and provides scanned images of the original records and maps. Here’s an example of the front and back of the sewer record card for the 3900 block of Densmore Avenue N.
Researcher and Wallingford resident, Linda Sewell, has combed through hundreds of sewer records covering Wallingford to find some interesting development patterns. As the example above illustrates, she noticed the same names appearing over and over in the “Owner” column of the cards. Names like Stephen Berg, P. E. Wentworth, Henry Brice, Henry Nelson, Lunde & Stoe, Gardner Gwinn, and even the Craftsman Bungalow Company (see below for short biographies). Some quick research revealed these names to be merchant builders who built homes in Wallingford from the 1910s to the 1930s. As was the case with Stephen Berg in the 3900 block of Densmore, these builders often purchased several lots on a block or in close proximity, designed and built multiple homes simultaneously, and then advertised the homes for sale directly to the public.
To visualize the impact of Wallingford’s most prolific merchant builders, Linda mapped the addresses of the properties in the sewer records that were associated with the most active builders. Berg, Wentworth, and Lunde & Stoe, noted in blue, green, and orange on the map, respectively, developed dozens of residences in Wallingford.
(Click the icon at the top right to enlarge the map. Then, use the menu at the left to select and deselect the various builders to best see their impact. Click on the individual points to see additional information.)
While the sewer records are a great source for leads on the names of original owners, property developers, and builders, it is always smart to compare them with information found in building permits and property deeds. Linda encountered misspelled names and conflicting information that sometimes required additional research. Importantly, her work demonstrates that the sewer records, when studied collectively, reveal just how prolific a handful of merchant builders were in shaping the Wallingford landscape.
Builder/Developer Biographies
In Progress
Stephen Berg
Stephen Berg (1887-1966) was a Norwegian‑born carpenter turned property developer whose early‑20th‑century career left a visible imprint on the city’s residential and commercial landscape. After emigrating to the U. S. in the early 1900s, he built hundreds of houses in north Seattle—many in Wallingford—between 1909 and 1922. Berg and his family lived in Wallingford at 1505 N. 43rd St. He then pivoted into larger‑scale projects, including the Biltmore Apartments, the Continental Hotel, and The Bergonian, a 12‑story luxury hotel downtown. His rapid rise was followed by a significant collapse as debts from his increasingly grand projects became too much to overcome.
Learn more about Berg’s dramatic rise and fall in this 2016 article by Tom Heuser.
Gardner J. Gwinn
Gardner J. Gwinn (1888–1959) was an influential builder in Seattle in the early 20th century, rising from tradesman in his native Nova Scotia to lead a large home‑construction firm in Seattle. He founded Gardner J. Gwinn, Inc. in 1913 and quickly expanded his business to offer plans, materials, labor, and financing—an approach that produced more than 600 houses, apartments, and commercial buildings across the region. Gwinn developed entire residential tracts, published popular plan books under the motto “Homes of Individuality,” and built Seattle’s first all‑electric demonstration homes in the 1920s. He then shifted to larger apartment and hotel projects, including the Marlborough House, Astor Court, and the Benjamin Franklin Hotel. A civic leader as well as a builder, he served as president of the Seattle Master Builders Association in 1927–28. Gwinn retired after a 1949, leaving a lasting imprint on the city’s residential landscape.
Learn more about Gwinn’s career and legacy in this essay by Michael Houser.
Henry Brice
In 1880, Henry Brice emigrated from England at age 15. He became a booster and pioneer landowner in Wallingford where he purchased 25 blocks of property in 1885 before it was developed. In addition to real estate, Brice was also a principal owner of Andrew Peterson & Company, a street grading contractor whose work included grading, guttering, and curbing the streets of Wallingford and Greenlake. In 1910, Brice hired Joseph Parker to build 100 houses in Wallingford. He lived with his family at 4234 Densmore Avenue N. for at least 20 years, and in 1924 sold this property—and the entire block between Densmore and Wallingford avenues and 42nd and 43rd streets—to the city to become Wallingford Playfield. Brice lived in Wallingford for 40 years and died at the age of 61 in June of 1925, a month after Wallingford Playfield was dedicated.
Sources: Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Aug. 21, 1910; Polk’s Seattle Directories, 1901-22; 1900, 1910, 1920; U. S. Census; Findagrave.com.
The Root Brothers
Brothers Edgar and Leslie Root were originally Pennsylvania farmers. By 1910 Edgar, in his mid-30s, had moved to Seattle and worked as a real estate agent. Soon after, Leslie joined him, working for Edgar’s business, E. W. Root and Co., located on Woodland Park Avenue North. They were real estate dealers as well as merchant builders. By the 1920s they went by the name The Root Brothers and were located at the northeast corner of 45th Street and Stone Way. They lived in Wallingford west of Stone Way. As their business flourished during the housing boom of the 1920s, they moved to the Green Lake neighborhood, living on lake front property. Edgar married around 1920 and had three children. Leslie remained a bachelor and continued to live with his brother until Edgar’s death around 1933 in his late 50s. He continued in real estate until 1935 and then turned to teaching. Leslie lived to about age 82.
Sources: Polk’s Seattle Directories, 1911-1955; 1900, 1910, 1930. U. S. Census; Findagrave.com
Lunde & Stoe
Norwegian immigrants Ole Lunde and Paul Stoe worked as carpenters for years before forming a building contractor company during Wallingford’s second housing boom of the 1920s. Lunde & Stoe, Inc. was active from 1923 to 1928 and was located for a few years at 1822 N 45th (across from Interlake School, today’s Wallilngford Center) with business hours well into the evening and on Sundays to better compete for real estate customers. They are typical of merchant builders from that period who would purchase several lots on a block, design and build multiple homes simultaneously, and then market the homes directly to the public. Many of their building projects were in the Green Lake area, but their most noticeable contribution to Wallingford—a cluster of Tudor Revival-style houses on Meridian Avenue N. south of N. 40th Street— overlapped with the demise of their partnership. The pair parted ways for unknown reasons just a few months after permits were issued for these homes in 1928.
Learn more and see photos of these residences along Meridian Ave. N in this post by Linda Sewell.
Sources: City of Seattle Historic Resource Survey records; City of Seattle Side Sewer cards; Janet Ore’s The Seattle Bungalow: People and Houses, 1900-1940 (2007) chapters 3, 4; Polk’s Seattle Directories; U. S. Census.
Henry Nelson
Henry Nelson emigrated from Denmark in 1888 at age 24. He appears to have been a carpenter and building contractor based in Everett at the beginning of the 20th century before settling in Wallingford by 1908. His real estate/merchant builder business was located at 2202 N. 45th Street in the brick building he constructed. His painted business sign is still slightly visible on the east and west sides of the building. Nelson sold his business in 1924 due to ill health. He lived with his family in the house he built at 3645 Densmore Avenue N. until his death in 1926 at age 61.
Sources: U. S. Census, 1900, 1910, 1920; Polk’s Seattle Directories, 1901-1927; Seattle Daily Times, Jul. 27, 1924.
John R. Van Emelen
John R. Van Emelen made his way from Illinois to Seattle and as a young man tried his hand at the grocery business. He changed course in 1903 when he ended a partnership with the Maple Leaf Grocery in Seattle and began a 40-year career as a carpenter, home builder, and a commercial broker. He lived with his family in the home he built at 5750 East Green Lake Way until his death in 1947 at age 69.
Sources: Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Aug. 28, 1903; Polk’s Seattle Directories, 1904-35; 1910, 1920, 1930, 1940; U. S. Census; Findagrave.com.