Retired neurosurgeon to speak at Old House Workshop
A retired Spokane neurosurgeon has found herself on the leading edge of her more domestic pursuit: the historic preservation of her 1909 home.
Kathleen Meyer, who practiced for years in Spokane, also spent the past 24 years upgrading and restoring her American Foursquare home at 1636 S. Cedar St.
The home with its classic Palladian arch dormer in front is considered an excellent example of the Foursquare style – a cleaner, stripped-down look compared with Victorian homes of the previous period.
“I like the era a lot,” she said. “I like the simplicity of the lines.”
Meyer said she was originally drawn to the generous use of wood on the interior with its boxed beams, pocket sliding doors, staircase, window framing and other features.
“It was the staircase that got me,” she said of her decision to buy.
Meyer is scheduled to appear Wednesday at the second of three sessions in Spokane’s Old House Workshop, which is being revived this year after a 10-year absence.
She will talk about the work that went into restoring the exterior of the home, including removal of asbestos siding and a historically incorrect railing on the second-floor facade.
The paint scheme of dark blue with cream trim is consistent with the period.
The ashlar block foundation was cleaned and polished with linseed oil to give a rich luster to the dark basalt blocks. A wooden drip course that works like a moisture guard between the foundation and siding was restored and partially replaced to match the home’s original look.
Tongue-and-groove wood used in the porch ceiling and roof soffits was repaired and replaced as needed.
Over the years, several of the original windows had been replaced with architecturally incompatible aluminum frame windows. Meyer has restored the windows to their original double-hung, wood-sash openings, among other projects.
She placed the home on the Spokane Register of Historic Places in 2008, the state historic register in 2013 and the national register in 2014.
It is known historically as the Hill-Hilscher House for the first family to occupy it.
Despite the modifications, the home “continues to convey historic and architectural significance” through its location, design, materials and workmanship, according to the historic nomination from 2008.
Some of the living space had been remodeled for apartments.
Linda Yeomans, the consultant who wrote the nomination, said the home was filled with historic restoration challenges when Meyer bought it. “It was real bad when Kathy moved in,” she said.
Meyer said her main contractor is Cornel Strain, of Hacon Inc., in Newman Lake.
In addition to the work on the home, Meyer hired professionals to upgrade the landscape design, including new block walkways and sidewalk. Clusters of small trees and shrubs fill in the spaces beneath large overhead trees that pre-date the ground-level design.
The home sits at the foot of 17th Avenue along Cedar Street, offering a direct view up 17th, which comes to a T-shaped intersection at Cedar directly in front of the house.
The original owners were Charles W. and Cornelia Hill, a socially prominent couple who purchased the property for $2,000 in 1908, according to the nomination.
Hill, who started out as a typesetter and later published a newspaper, moved to Spokane and founded C.W. Hill Printing Co. about the same time he bought the two adjoining lots.
When Hill died in 1937, the home passed to his daughter and son-in-law, Edna Hill Hilscher and E. Durand Hilscher.
The son-in-law succeeded Hill as president and general manager of the printing company. He expanded the company’s reputation for lithography and printing in part by keeping up with improvements in technology over the years, the nomination said.
Meyer said her commitment to historic preservation probably comes from her mother, Bette Meyer, a prominent preservationist and former landmarks commissioner in Spokane.
“To her credit, Dr. Meyer has successfully and sensitively restored and rehabilitated the property,” Yeomans wrote in the nomination.