Shoreline Historical Museum Trillium Award winners revealed

“Trillium Award Winners 2015”

From left: Nancy and Carl Hansen holding the North Seattle Trillium Heritage Award; Robert Haig and Alison Haig, recipients of the Lake Forest Park Trillium Heritage Award; and Ken Callahan and Jerry Parton accepting the Trillium Heritage Award for the Shoreline Masonic Center.

As part of its Preservation Recognition Program, the Shoreline Historical Museum Saturday gave its 10th Annual Trillium Heritage Awards to three deserving contestants in North Seattle, Lake Forest Park and Shoreline. All of the award winners have worked to keep the historical integrity of their buildings intact, giving their surrounding communities depth and meaning that might otherwise have been lost. We congratulate the following award recipients:

The award for North Seattle went to Carl and Nancy Hansen for their historic Summer House at 14410 3rd Ave. NW, on the south side of the Seattle Golf Club. The beautiful tudor-style home was built in 1928 by Bessie and Charles Pye Burnett, who spared no expense in the details of the home, such as Batchelder art tiles in the floor, hardwood floors and elegant formal spaces, indoors and out. 

Mr. Burnett was an important real estate broker, and the Burnetts were well-known in Seattle’s high society, attending fundraisers and gatherings. In 1932, their son, Charles Pye Burnett, Jr., an up-and-coming attorney, married Frances Green, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Joshua Green. While originally built as a get-away, it appears that the Burnetts eventually made the Summer House their permanent residence, preferring the quiet life “out in the country” near The Highlands, to that of Capital Hill, their previous area of residence.

Accepting the award for a historic building in Lake Forest Park were Alison Haig and Robert Haig, owners of the 1939 Lake House built by Albert and Claire Kollmorgan at 15028 - Beach Drive NE.

There were few other houses nearby when the cabin-style home was built in the southern reaches of Lake Forest Park. While Bothell Way was nearby, there were no roads to the properties along the lake in that area. Mrs. Kollmorgan told the Haig family, who are only the second owners of the house, that all of the building materials had to be barged in. The exterior rough-cut cedar planks, and interior details such as knotty pine walls, fir floors and blacksmith-forged latches and handles give the Lake House its character.

Mr. Kollmorgan was a tailor and part owner of Duncan McGregor fine men’s clothing in Seattle. But his life-long avocation was casting and fly fishing. He was on the board of the Seattle Casting Club and competed in many casting tournaments and fishing derbies. Perhaps building a house on the lake where he could practice casting was his dream.

The Trillium Heritage Award for the Shoreline area was presented to the Shoreline Masonic Center, represented by Jerry Parton and Ken Callahan, members of the Shoreline Lodge #248. The Masonic Center, at 753 - N 185th St. was built in 1922, and has been in continuous operation as a Masonic building since its construction.

The building has been a community gathering place from the beginning, not only for Masonic lodge members and lodge youth activities, but for dozens of community organizations and hundreds of community meetings over the last 93 years.

A good deal of work has gone into repairing and restoring the iconic structure, and Lodge members hope to have everything complete by 2022, when the organization will celebrate the building’s 100th anniversary. The building was awarded King County/Shoreline Landmark status in 2010.

The Shoreline Historical Museum’s Trillium Heritage Awards raise awareness of the community’s roots, and encourages excellence in the maintenance and perpetuation of historic buildings in accordance with their original style. Congratulations again to the 2015 Award recipients.