COLUMBIA CITY is one of those quirky older neighborhoods that has attempted to maintain its individual identity despite the encroachment of industry, multifamily housing, automobile-related business and changing economics. Seven miles southeast of downtown Seattle in the Rainier Valley, it was one of several independent mill towns settled in the late 1880s.

Historic reproduction wallpapers and reproduction lighting have brought period charm back to the main rooms.

The lumber mills and railroad tracks are gone, but Columbia City still retains evidence of its heritage as a self-contained, turn-of-the-century community. Much of this success is the result of its status as a designated historic district since 1978. The district includes more than 40 commercial and residential buildings; Columbia Park; the former Fifth Church of Christ, Scientist, that is now the Rainier Valley Cultural Center; and a Carnegie branch of the Seattle Public Library.

Recently, there has been a renaissance in the district. Restaurants, cafes and galleries have opened. Apartments in the venerable Columbia Hotel have been renovated. With each project, Rainier Avenue South becomes a livelier business district and long-neglected historic buildings are brought closer to their original appearance.

Local resident Marjorie Raunig is a Columbia City booster. "It's absolutely wonderful - the best neighborhood I've ever lived in. Neighbors are friendly without being intrusive. It's a good, diverse neighborhood. The Columbia City Revitalization Committee has been very active in encouraging a more lively business district." She mentions Beat Walk, a night of dining out and music, as well as various garden and architectural walking tours, a community garden project, the very popular farmer's market, the art gallery and the cultural center.

As businesses and community revitalize, Raunig sees a parallel fixing up and improving of neighborhood homes. Few homeowners have been as respectful of their old house as Raunig, who bought her modest three-bedroom home in the fall of 1992, attracted by its style and by the price.

"This was the most reasonable place in the city to buy a home," she says.

Rainier Avenue South in Columbia City has become a vital commercial area again.

Previous owners had researched the history of the house, and Raunig continues to add to that history as she searches for clues to physical changes that are evident in missing walls and doors.

Harry Campeau, a school-district carpenter, built the house in 1909. He planted blackberries in the northwest corner of the lot which, according to an old-time neighbor, he planned to use as a cash crop. Despite repeated attempts to remove them, his plants continue to make their appearances.

Campeau occupied the house through 1942. After a crippling fall, he was cared for by Miss Hamacher, a teacher who kept the house and had the yard landscaped "like a park," with a birdbath and a hedge of roses. She lived there through 1969. A neighbor remembers an upright piano in the front hall, which she liked to play for guests. "She was one of those too-seldom-seen older ladies who offer guests toffee from a tin with a scenic picture on the lid."

The next owners may have been the ones who "modernized" the kitchen, removed the column and bookcase that mirrored the one remaining in the living room, and removed a built-in china cabinet that probably separated dining room from kitchen. The next family to occupy the house planted the northwest corner of the lot for a garden. Then the house was vacant for a long time, vandalized and decaying. Campeau's blackberries became an impenetrable jungle covering the lower half of the back yard.

A stone path winds through the garden. Raunig added the deck and trellis, and hopes eventually to build a carriage house with studio adjoining it.

In 1986, new owners cleared away the blackberries and repaired the house. After Raunig bought the house in 1992 there were ceiling and wall repairs and plumbing problems that required removing lead pipe in the upstairs bathroom.

Most of the largely cosmetic work that makes the interiors shine today was begun in 1998. Raunig made the main-floor bedroom (which may originally have been a study or library) into a home office. She added a new bath in what was the back porch. She relocated the back door to the kitchen and replaced the porch with a larger deck leading down to the back yard, which is, once again, landscaped like a park.

In her choice of wall colors and furnishings, she was inspired to learn about Craftsman style because of the simple wood interiors. Fortunately, the beautiful fir woodwork and window trim had never been touched.

Raunig brought the interior back to its origins with hand-painted Arts & Crafts Prairie wallpapers by Bradbury and Bradbury in the living room, dining room and office. The pendant and stylized flower motifs, she says, are "very simple and appropriate to a simple home."

A new mahogany door with stained and beveled glass window opens out to the porch.

The previous owners had added reproduction lighting fixtures to kitchen and dining room. Raunig did the same with the living room. She replaced the damaged front door with a mahogany door with art glass. New leaded windows in the door, hall and living room followed discussions with Peter Shaeffer of Wolf's Door. She selected a simple geometric design with beveled and stained glass that reflects the Prairie style and takes its cues from the wallpaper's green, gold and turquoise.

Raunig's dining-room table, chairs and sideboard are modeled after those by Gustav Stickley and were built by local furniture maker Bruce Ruge. On a recent visit, her sister commented that their grandmother had dining-room furniture just like this.

Once again, an upright piano greets visitors in the front hall, as it did in Miss Hamacher's time. This one is an 1891 piano bought by Raunig's grandmother for her family in Montana. All that's missing is the toffee from a tin.

Lawrence Kreisman is program director for Historic Seattle. He serves on the Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board and is author of "Made to Last: Historic Preservation in Seattle and King County." Benjamin Benschneider is staff photographer for Pacific Northwest magazine.