FOR OFFICE USE ONLY
Langley Register of Historic Places Received
Nomination Form
Type all entries 1. Name of Property Historic: Beachum house/ Lovejoy house And/or common: 2. Location Street and number: 402 Anthes Avenue City: Langley State: WA Zip: 98260 3. Classification
Category Ownership Status Present Use District Public X Occupied Agriculture Museum X Building(s) X Private Unoccupied Commercial Park Structure Both Work in progress Educational X Residential Site Public Acquisition Accessible Entertainment Religious Object In process Yes: restricted Government Scientific Being considered Yes: unrestricted Industrial Transportation Not Applicable No Military Other
4. Owner of Property Name: Ben Breedlove Street and number: 402 Anthes Avenue City: Langley State: WA Zip: 98260 Telephone: 360-221-2068 Email: 5. Physical Description
Condition Check one Check one Excellent Deteriorated Unaltered X Original site X Good Ruins X Altered Moved Date: Fair Unexposed
Narrative description of the present and original physical appearance is found on one or more continuation sheets.
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6. Significance:
Year Built: 1908 Builder/Architect: Albert Melsen? Narrative description of the history and significance of the property to Langley’s heritage is found on one or more continuation sheets.
7. Major Bibliographical References Bibliography is found on one or more continuation sheets.
8. Additional 8. Additional Documentation
Maps and photographs are attached.
9. Geographical Data
Latitude / Longitude: Verbal Boundary Description: The Beachum/Lovejoy house, built in 1908, is located on Lot 1 of a short plat at the S. E. corner of Fourth Street and Anthes Avenue, Langley, Washington. A barn located a short distance south of the house is located on an adjacent Lot 3 of the same short plat.
Legal Description
"Lots 1 and 3 of Short Plat 97/001SP, as recorded in Volume 3 of Short Plats, page 494, records of Island County, Washington"
Tax Parcel Number: R33034-056-2880 (House); R33034-046-2910 (Barn) Plat Name: 97/001SP Block: Lot(s) 1 & 3
10. Criteria for Evaluation Check criteria that apply: ! A. That are associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of our history; or X B. That are associated with the lives of persons significant in our past; or ! C. That embody the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, or method of construction, or that represent the work of a master, or that possess high artistic values, or that represent a significant and distinguishable entity whose components may lack individual distinction; or ! D. That have yielded or may be likely to yield, information important in prehistory or history. Explain: Occupants of the house have included an Island County Commissioner, a prominent steamboat captain, and a prominent real estate agent and civic leader.
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11. Description of Architectural Character (Character to be preserved if on Langley Register) Describe and attach photographs that show the character defining features: Basic bungalow style of the house, and the original windows; particularly those on the north wall of the original structure now the south wall of the porch. The original shape and structure of the associated barn and its main door on the west side.
12. Integrity (a building must have retained at least three of the seven) Check aspects of integrity X 1. location X 2. design ! 3. setting ! 4. materials ! 5. workmanship ! 6. feeling X 7. association
Explain: The bungalow style house and adjacent barn are located on their original sites and retain their original basic shape and character.
13. Form Prepared by:
Name/Title: Niki Barr and Robert Waterman Organization: Langley Historic Preservation Commission Date: 3/12/12 Street and number: 88 Saratoga Creek Lane Telephone: 360-221-8644 City or town: Langley State: WA Zip: 98260 Email: [email protected]
14. The HPC encourages owners of properties listed on the Langley Register of Historic Places to allow placement of an informational plaque on their premises.
15. I agree don’t agree to allow photographs and other information about this property to be made available to the community by the HPC and/or City of Langley.
16. Signature of Property Owner
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CONTINUATION PAGES –
5. Narrative Description of the Property
The Beachum/Lovejoy house, built in 1908, is located on the East corner of Fourth Street and Anthes, The house is a two story bungalow with a full basement. It has a side gabled roof and two dormers centered on the front and back of the upper story. A brick chimney is located in front of the back dormer on the south side of the house. Horizontal and vertical stick brace supports are featured on the dormers. The gabled roof overhang has the same horizontal and vertical stick brace supports. All thirteen windows on the house are double casement with single pane glass, except for a picture frame window on the north side, added at a later time. The house has cedar plank wall cladding and a concrete foundation.
When Richard Luhn bought the house in 1943, several architectural changes were made. He enclosed the front porch, adding a picture window on the East side. The front door was relocated from its original location facing Fourth Street to the west side of the porch opening onto Anthes Avenue. A breakfast nook was added on the east wall, diagonally from the front door. The back porch on the south side was enclosed. In 2005, the roof was replaced by the Breedloves, using rubber shingles, and plastic siding was placed directly over the original cedar plank wall cladding.
A Tulipifera tree, now one hundred and four years old, was planted on the East corner of Fourth Street and Anthes when the home was built in 1908. It is a prominent feature of the site and is now located within the Fourth Street right of way. Facing Anthes is a barn built by Luhn. It featured an interior pipe designed to capture water flowing from a spring up the hill for watering his cows.
6. Narrative Description of Significance
The house was associated with three of Langley’s important citizens.
The first was Walter Fred Beachum (Beacham). He was born in the town of Bruce, Macomb County, Michigan in 1854. About 1885 Walter married Susan Bacon (Baon), and by 1900 the Beachums had a farmstead between Langley and Useless Bay on what is now Newman Road. Living with them, and listed as “adopted” on the census records, was a girl named Effie Cogean (CoJean). Effie, the daughter of Oliver Joseph Cogean and Martha Ellen Bradshaw of Langley, was sent to live with the Beachums at age 3 or 4, when her mother found herself unable to care for her seven young children after her father deserted his family. The Beachums also adopted a boy named Clarence born in 1907. Effie married Thomas Henry Simonson at age 18, and became active in Langley affairs during her later years.
Soon after 1900, Island County came under pressure to improve transportation conditions from the south end of Whidbey Island to the county seat at Coupeville. Road construction began between Langley and Useless Bay (designated Road District #5), and Walter became the Road Supervisor by appointment of the BOICC.
He served in this capacity from 1909 until November of 1910 when his election to the Board of County Commissioners in 1910 prevented him from carrying out this office. He took up his position on the BOICC in January 2011 and served on the BOICC from 1911-1914; the last 2 years as chair.
During “Fred’s” time on the Board of County Commissioners, the first reimbursements were made to Commissioners for gasoline and mileage in their own vehicles, the county began type writing the official minutes of the meetings, two diking districts were formed, and the town of Langley was incorporated (1913).
Sometime around 1910, the Beachum family moved to Langley and occupied the house at 4th Street and Anthes Avenue. The caption below the picture of his home published in 1911 reads:
“Mr. Beecham, one of the County Commissioners of Island County, resides at Langley and engages in fruit growing and poultry raising. Mr. Beecham homesteaded at Langley nineteen years ago, and had
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no money in his pocket. Yet today to view his cherry and apple trees and his berry farm one would presume a heavy investment of capital.” 1
He served as Langley’s town marshal from June 1 to September 7, 1920.4 It is unclear whether the Beachums continued to live in the same home between 1920 and 1930, and no major public service is reported for him in local news or county records after 1914.
An article in the Island County Times, October 17, 1919 states that “W. F. Beachum has sold his house and several acres to a Mr. Brown from Oregon. Ed Howard negotiated the deal.” 6
Walter moved from Langley to the mainland in 1930 and died in Everett on August 17, 1933, aged 82, (Whidbey Record and Farm Bureau News). He was interred at the Evergreen Cemetery in Everett in August 1933. His wife, Susan Beachum, was buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Everett in March 1936.5
The second person to occupy the house was Captain Bartlett Lovejoy. Bartlett (“Bart”) Howard Lovejoy was born in Coupeville, WA on April 2, 1889. He attended the University of Washington, and was part of the University’s crew involved in a well-documented incident with the Stanford crew in 1910. He graduated in 1912 and married Avanell B. (last name?). Their daughter, Gretchen, was born March 3, 1913.
Bartlett came from a prominent family of boat builders and ship captains. His father, Howard Bartlett Lovejoy, was a steamboat captain on Puget Sound. He purchased the sternwheeler, Fairhaven, in 1906 and founded the Island Transportation Company in 1911 adding the steamers Atlanta, Clatawa, Calista, and Camano to his fleet.
His uncle L. Bentley Lovejoy was a respected Puget Sound pilot. Bart’s brother, Stanley Todd Lovejoy, was also a Puget Sound pilot. Another brother, Frank Edward Lovejoy, founded the Puget Sound Freight Line.
In 1918, Bart and Avanell were living in Everett and Bart was attending Captain Smith’s Navigation School. He took over as captain of the steamship Calista (named for his grandmother) when Captain Arnold retired in 1920.
Bart was piloting the Calisa on the morning of July 27, 1922 when it was rammed by a Japanese freighter and sank in 28 minutes off West Point near Elliot Bay. All aboard were saved through quick action of Bart and his crew. In addition to Bart, survivors from Langley included Ruth McLeod, David McLeod, Francis Dills, Victor Primavera, Rowena Corless, and newly appointed Langley Mayor Margaret McLeod. Also, Mrs. L. Graham and daughter S. W. Graham, J. C. Schumaker, Ada and Lucille Millman, P. H. Cookson, A. Kniper, and R. McGinnis who was serving as purser. The former Captain of the Calista, Henry Arnold was also aboard as a passenger.
Bart was living in Langley in 1920 and 1930 according to the Federal Censuses. His WW II draft card dated 1942 indicates he was living in Seattle and working for the Puget Sound Freight Line. He did not list Avenall as the person to contact. 2, 3
Third owner of the house was Richard A. Luhn. “Dick” Luhn, a well known real estate agent in Langley for many years, who purchased the house in 1943.
He sold the house and property to current (2011) owner Benjamin Breedlove in 1964.
7. Major Bibliographical References
1. Notes from “Island County: A World Beater”, E. M. Hawes and Lou Clark. 1911. Copyright, Elizabeth H. Dodge. Third Printing, 1979. 2. “The Sinking of the Calista Part 1: A Maritime History of Central Whidbey Island.” 1998. Roger M. Sherman. 3. Ancestry.com 4. Lorna Cherry. 1986. “South Whidbey and its People. Vol. III, p. 22. South Whidbey Historical Society.
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5. Information supplied by A.S. Elizabeth Fairfax, MA,CA, ACA Certified Archivist/Public Records Professional, Island County Archives, Records and Information Management Program. 6. Island County Times, October 17, 1919.
8. Additional Information
Maps
Looking East. (Google Earth) Looking West. (Google Earth)
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Looking North. (Google Earth) Looking South. (Google Earth)
Recent Photographs of house
North side. 1/30/12. (R. Waterman). Northwest corner. 1/30/12. (R. Waterman).
West side. 1/30/12. (R. Waterman). Southwest side. 1/30/12. (R. Waterman).
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South side. 1/30/12. (R. Waterman). Southeast corner. 1/30/12. (R. Waterman).
East side. 1/30/12. (R. Waterman). Northeast corner. 1/30/12. (R. Waterman).
North side. Circular pond removed. 1/30/12. (R. Waterman). Sidewalk on North side. 1/30/12. (R. Waterman).
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Detail of porch window. 1/30/12. (R. Waterman). Vent. West side. Similar vent on East side. Installed when new roof and roof vents installed. .1/30/12. (R. Waterman).
Historic Photographs
N.W. corner of house. (From “Island County: A World Beater” 1911).
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Aerial view. 1971. (Ben Breedlove).
House prior to new paint:
North side with circular pond (2004). (R. Waterman) N.W. corner – 2004 (R. Waterman)
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West side – 2011. (Niki Barr) S. W. corner – 2011. (Niki Barr)
South side – 2004. (R. Waterman) S.E. corner – 2004 (R. Waterman)
East side – 2004. (R. Waterman) Breakfast bay detail – 2011 (Niki Barr)
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Breakfast bay detail – 2011 (Niki Barr) Porch window details from inside house. 2011.
Recent photographs of Barn:
West side. 1/30/12. (R. Waterman). South westt corner. 1/30/12. (R. Waterman).
South side. 1/30/12. (R. Waterman). S.E. corner. 1/30/12. (R. Waterman).
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East side. 1/30/12. (R. Waterman). Northwest. corner. 1/30/12. (R. Waterman).
Photographs of barn before painting:
West side of barn – 2004 (R. Waterman) S.W. corner of barn – 2004 (R. Waterman)
Tulipifera tree on north side.
Tulipifera tree (In street R.O.W.) – 2004. (R. Waterman)
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Drawings/plans
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