Denny Mansion

 
 
 
 

Event Participants

  The Duwamish Tribe

  The Duwamish  and
  Pioneer Descendants

 

  Vital Spark

  Northwest Steam
  Society


  Children's Hospital

  Last Resort Fire Dept

  James Bacon
  Local Model T Club

 

  MOHAI
 

  Ivar's


  The International
  Sun Hak Choir


  Blue 4 Trio


  John Engerman


  The City of Seattle


     

 

 The Denny Mansion

MANSION’S SIGNIFICANCE


    Designed by Bebb and Mendel, Seattle’s most prominent architectural firm at the time; also designed such buildings as the Frye Hotel (Yesler & 3rd Ave. S.), the Hoge Building (705 2nd Ave.) and the Corona Building (1st & Jackson) . Bebb helped found the Washington chapter of the A.I.A. The home is a Spanish Revival style not commonly found in the Northwest. Commissioned by Rolland Denny and his wife Alice Kellogg they named their new home “Lochkelden”. Loch- (Scottish for lake), -kel- (Kellogg) and –den (Denny). Originally on the outskirts of town it was designed as a country estate. Unlike the mansions of Capital Hill whose carriage houses where used for cars this one was built for a carriage and horses that Rolland would ride on the gravel Windermere Road.

 

    Sitting prominently on a hill just to the south of Magnuson Park the home can be seen from across the lake in Kirkland. From there a tour boat makes scores of trips every season showing tourists the homes of Seattle’s rich and famous such as Kenny G and Bill Gates. The last home of the tour is this 1907 gem. The guide explains that while built for Rolland, son of the city’s founder Arthur Denny and likely the only home remaining that any of the original group lived in, the building has been owned since 1974 by the Unification Church and that over the years the Rev. Sun Myung Moon and his wife Hak Ja Han have occasionally stayed there.

    Rolland Denny


    Rolland traveled far more comfortably than most pioneers on the Oregon Trail, he traveled by womb. The year was 1851 and with the promise of 320 acres of free land to be given to couples willing to homestead, Rolland's father Arthur (29 years old) convinced his wife Mary (28) brother David (19) and other family members to leave their homes in Illinois and go west. The couple already had two young girls and Mary was pregnant with their first son. They reached the end of the trail, the town of Portland where on September 2nd he was born. By September 28th construction of the first Seattle pioneer home was started by Uncle David with the help of the yet to be displaced Duwamish Indians. Although the natives had seen white people before, they had never seen red hair until they saw the baby Rolland when he arrived November 13th with the rest of the party. Judging by the odd color they were quite certain this baby would not survive. With the tiny settlement lacking a cow the three babies had only clam broth to supplement the mother’s milk.


    In time Rolland was part of the first graduating students of the Territorial University, later to become the University of Washington, class of 1869. He went on to work with Dexter Horton, Seattle’s first banker (Dexter Horton Bank later SeaFirst Bank), eventually becoming the banks director. In 1876 Dexter and Rolland joined Catherine Maynard in her home for a meeting that was to create Seattle’s 1st YMCA. He married in 1877, died June 13th 1939. His life spanned the 1st log cabin to a city of 400,000.

 

 

Purchased as a Church


    By 1974 Seattle’s economy was in the doldrums and the American Unification Church was in its infancy. Americans weren’t used to missionaries coming from the east to the west and the media, to put it mildly, wasn’t interested in objectively understanding this new faith. The public furor was yet to be fully realized. It was under these circumstances that Rev. Moon asked a small group of young U.C. members led by Rev. Reiner Vincenz and his wife Barbra to travel throughout the country evangelizing and buying property to initiate the church in key cities. The mansion was available for sale and at $175,000.was just within financial reach. After purchase though an ad hoc committee was formed to roll up the welcome mat for this new group in the name of protecting property values. 33 years and skyrocketing property values later our welcome mat is out for all to celebrate. By the way, during the mansions purchase Rev. Vincenz stayed for a while at the Y.M.C.A. that Rolland helped create.