WRITTEN BY LAWRENCE KREISMAN PHOTOGRAPHED BY BENJAMIN BENSCHNEIDER

MEDITERRANEAN REVIVAL

Old walls came down, new finishes went up, and integrity was restored

"QUIET MOMENT," by William Cumming, brings bright color into the dramatic lacquered walls of Diahann Braseth’s study. Dale Chihuly glass rests on the windowsill; West African sculpture stands at the far right.

JOHN AND DIAHANN Braseth spent 11 years improving their Georgian Colonial home. But whenever they passed by a Mediterranean Revival perched on a nearby hillside overlooking Lake Washington, their hearts beat a bit faster.

For them it was a mysterious house. Drawn shades and blacked-out windows meant no one could see in. Finally, in 2003, for-sale signs went up. "All these people had gone to see it and encouraged me," John recalls. "But I didn't want to go see it. It would break my heart to know how beautiful it was and also know that we couldn't afford it." By the fall, when the house was still on the market, he called the agent.

IN THE LIVING ROOM, a Louis XV-style French marble fireplace surround replaces the simpler wood-trimmed original. Above it is "Bird & Mountain," a 1943 painting by Morris Graves. On the left wall is Guy Anderson’s 1980 "Around the New Born." William Slater’s colorful 2005 work, "Vase," is visible through the doorway.

"Naively, after a 15-minute first-time tour of the home, we knew it was ours." Despite a year of renovation that is far from over, they have no regrets.

The house was built for Cadillac dealer Roy Corbett in 1926 and designed by Schack Young & Myers. In 1938 it came into the national spotlight when John Boettiger, publisher of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and his wife, Anna Roosevelt Boettiger, an editor there, moved in with two children, Curtis and Eleanor, from her former marriage. Their son, John Jr., was born in 1939. While no "Franklin and Eleanor slept here" plaques are on display, the proud grandparents, Franklin D. and Eleanor Roosevelt, did visit often.

REFLECTING EACH OTHER at either end of the main hall, the east and west stairs share the same design vocabulary of ornamental iron newel posts and balusters. The painting on the right is "Confrontation at the Bridge" by Jacob Lawrence.

The Boettigers had Secret Service people living here. The floor plan of the house was ideally suited for this. Off a central hallway was a study, music room, living and dining room, kitchen and breakfast room. But the Corbetts, expecting that their daughter would live with them in her own quarters, had asked their architect to provide for turning the house into a duplex. A side entrance led to a foyer and what the architects labeled staff living room, kitchen and dining. On either end of the central hall were staircases leading up to a hall, bedrooms, dressing and sitting rooms and baths. It didn't take long before walls were put up separating the two sides of the house.

CIRCUS-THEMED MURALS in the second-floor nursery were painted for the delight of John Boettiger Jr. and remain untouched since that time.

With the nation at war, the Roosevelts moved back to Washington, D.C., selling the house in 1941 to A.W. and Genevieve Brindle, who owned it until 2002.

The Braseths have furnished the living, dining and breakfast rooms with mid-19th-century European pieces. They also display the work of Northwest artists, including William Ivey, Morris Graves and Guy Anderson. "People assume that because I'm a contemporary art dealer I'd have a contemporary home," John says. "But that's not what I'd want."

THE KITCHEN combines traditional painted wood cabinets with white marble counters. It opens to the arch-windowed breakfast room.


A STONE SINK adds a modern touch to the main-floor powder room while tile from Ann Sacks reflects the period of the home.



THE EXTERIOR is little changed from the way it looked when it was completed. The red-tiled roof is the original from 1926.

John has made the study his home office; across the hall, Diahann's library was shaped from the former staff area. But the most dramatic change has been in the former kitchen and breakfast room. Doors breakfast and dining rooms were pulled out, along with walls and cabinetry, to make the kitchen feel more a part of the house. White marble counters and sinks make for clean, elegant lines. But the floor is really the focal point. The Greco-Roman pattern was computer generated, then laid in black-and-white stone.

While the project was complicated, the good will between contractor Kevin Price of JAS Design Build and the clients had already been established in remodeling the couple's former house.

"Our contractor is not the standard builder," Braseth says. "He employs architects, artists and other master craftsmen from many disciplines. We consider him a restorer because he has one foot firmly rooted in the past and the other in the future, which frankly sums up our philosophy of living."

Lawrence Kreisman is program director of Historic Seattle. Benjamin Benschneider is a Pacific Northwest magazine staff photographer.