Archives West Finding Aid

Ellsworth Storey was a pioneer Seattle architect best known for combining local materials with contemporary and historical styles to create a regional architectural style, later called “regionalism," reflecting the Pacific Northwest. This practice became highly influential in the mid-late twentieth century.

Storey, born November 16, 1897, in Chicago, attended the University of Illinois for architecture where he was influenced by the Prairie School of Architecture and Frank Lloyd Wright. His architectural style was also influenced by his family’s tours of Europe and the Middle East, especially by Swiss Chalets. He moved to Seattle in 1903, taking on building his and his parent's houses as some of his first projects. Other early projects include the Francis G. Frink House (1906-1909), George W. Trimble House (1905-1906), Phiscator Estate (1907-1908, altered), George B. Barclay House (1907-1908), Hoo-Hoo House Lumberman’s Fraternity (1909), Sigma Nu Fraternity House (1915-1916), and Unitarian Church (1915-1916).

From 1912-1915 Storey built the Ellsworth Storey Cottages, a series of 12 cottages for rent alongside Colman Park and Lake Washington Blvd, that Victor Steinbeck called an "excellent example of charming design and fine detailing in a contemporary manner far in advance of its time. There is a fitting, almost indigenous quality in their simple wooden forms as they appear to ramble up the wooded hillside" in Seattle Cityscape, 1962. Storey’s later works began to include works grounded in the natural environment of Seattle and the Pacific Northwest. During the Great Depression, in 1934, he built eight buildings for the Moran State Park facilities on Orcas Island including a twelve-story fire-watch tower on Mt. Constitution. Following this he took on projects for the Federal Housing Authority and U.S. Navy's Sand Point Naval Air Station, working with government agencies until 1955 when he retired.

Storey passed away May 28, 1960, while visiting his daughter Eunice in Ithaca, New York, and his ashes were spread over the Puget Sound.