Site of Pontius mansion

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1250 Denny Way

Architect: John Parkinson, 1889, demolished 1930

Rezin and Margaret Pontius migrated from Ohio to Seattle in 1865, and later built a farm in the meadow on their 160-acres near Lake Union. The Pontiuses were firm believers in spiritualism, a somewhat divisive issue in pioneer Seattle society. Margaret Pontius was said to manifest both great charm and a violent temper. Rezin Pontius left his family sometime in the late 1880s.

Margaret had the farmhouse moved and erected a three-story, many-gabled Queen Anne-style mansion complete with Norman tower in 1889. It was one of Seattle's earliest fine homes. Paneled in cedar and golden oak, the mansion featured five bedrooms plus servants' quarters, front and back parlors, and a plumbed bathroom with zinc bathtub -- considered by many Seattleites to be one of the marvels of its day. Margaret platted her land, sold lots, and was rumored to be worth $100,000 by the time she died in 1902, a fortune at the time.

In 1905 Olive "Mother" Ryther moved her many orphans into the Pontius home, tacked up her motto ("God Giveth Grace To The Lowly"), and used the decaying mansion as an orphanage until 1920. The landmark mansion survived until 1930, when it was replaced by a garage and repair shop for the North Coast Transportation Company, a predecessor of the Greyhound Line. The reinforced-concrete garage on the property was built in 1940, the two masonry garages in 1950.

By Paula Becker, September 25, 2012

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Pontius mansion, facing Denny Way near Yale Avenue, Seattle, ca. 1903
Courtesy Seattle Public Library

Former site of Pontius Mansion on Denny Way, Seattle, 2001
Photo by Paul Dorpat