Uncovering A Treasure Knight House Qualifies As A Historic Place

The first time Carol Santantonio walked through the spacious home on Westpoint Road, she wasn’t thinking about history or famous architects.

She was envisioning holiday gatherings with friends and family.

“It was the biggest dining room I’d ever seen,” said Santantonio. “I fell in love with the floor plan.”

Those were probably the same thoughts Regina Knight had in 1910 as she walked through her new Kirtland Cutter-designed home.

Santantonio and her husband, Gerald, quickly bought the house. Just as quickly, buyer’s remorse attacked like a bad case of the flu.

“I felt like I’d bought the house on impulse,” she said. “I was so depressed about what I had done.”

Santantonio, who had just moved to Spokane, had never heard of Cutter, one of the city’s most famous architects.

But her impulse had been right.

Beneath the mauve carpet, dropped ceilings and layers of paint was an architectural jewel. Santantonio uncovered it.

Last week, five years after buying the house, it was named to the Spokane Register of Historic Places.

The Santantonios will discuss their restoration work during the annual Old House Workshop at Cheney Cowles Museum in February.

“Really, we just put everything back the way it was,” said Santantonio.

Like many owners of old homes, the Santantonio’s feel a special connection to the house, its past and its personality.

For months Carol Santantonio was frustrated by the cramped, narrow kitchen, “remuddled” some 40 years ago. But she was at a loss how to fix it.

Late one night the answer came to her.

“It occurred to me there was a woman living here in 1910 and the kitchen worked for her. How did it look then?” she wondered.

By midnight, the Santantonios were poring over the original blueprints. The solution was right there: put it back the way it was.

They found the original kitchen cabinets in the basement and had them copied exactly. The old wavy pieces of glass were used in the new cabinets.

The Santantonios’ commitment to authenticity has earned praise.

“They are the perfect example to what to do,” said Linda Yeomans, a historic preservation planning consultant.

Yeomans helped the Santantonios research the history of their home and prepare the historic register nomination.

Yeomans instantly recognized Cutter’s unique touches throughout the American Foursquare-style home.

“Cutter liked things to look old, like it had always been there,” said Yeomans.

Cutter also liked to bring outside light into the house. Windows are large and plentiful, brightening halls and even casting light into basement stairwells.

Inside and outside the house, a tulip motif decorates woodwork.

An expansive two-story entry hall Cutter called a “living hall” is roomy enough for furniture and conversation.

The house, located in Pettet’s Addition near Summit Boulevard, is distinguished by its unusual swept roof, reminiscent of thatch-roofed English cottages.

Throughout the restoration, the Santantonios uncovered surprises, frustrations and curiosities.

The outside of the house features a large central window, flanked by two smaller windows. Inside the house, one of the windows had been walled over, for whatever reason.

Oddly, a vintage curtain, probably from the 1930s, still hangs on the window, preserved behind the wall.

There were other surprises.

Carol Santantonio chose a cheery red paint to accent her all-white kitchen. Chipping away layers of paint on a baseboard, she discovered a coat of red. She thinks it might have been the original color for the kitchen trim.

Likewise, she bought wallpaper, then discovered a strikingly similar design was there originally, buried under layers of more recent papers.

Gerald Santantonio’s den features a rich, fir frieze with cutouts depicting crosses. Coincidently, Santantonio already owned church pew ends with nearly matching crosses he uses as a computer desk.

Challenges of antiquated electricity were less amusing.

“We couldn’t make toast and use the hair dryer at the same time without blowing a fuse,” said Carol Santantonio. Much of the house has now been rewired.

The first owners of the house were Edwin and Regina Knight. He was a successful businessman, manufacturing diamond drills for mine exploration.

In 1932 he sold the house to Dr. Otto Rott, who was probably responsible for much of the early remodeling. The Santantonios have blueprints from that project as well.

The house was bought in the 1940s by Joe and Esther Pedicord, who owned the Pedicord Hotel, then by Eva and Roy Hathaway of Hathaway Meats. In 1951 Gertrude and William Longmeier bought the house for $30,000 and lived in it for 22 years. In 1973 they sold the house to Jean and Kenneth Oxrieder, owners of Casey’s Restaurant. The Santantonios bought the home for $275,000 in 1993.

Despite several owners, and passing of decades, most of the original hardware, fixtures, even a double-pedestal iron laundry sink remain in place.

During their restoration work, the Santantonio’s have uncovered most of the house’s secrets.

One still baffles Gerald Santantonio: the garage.

The home was originally built with a brick-walled kitchen garden. It was turned into an attached garage, one of the first in Spokane, in 1916.

The outside wall angles sharply back from the front, narrowing to the back like a trapezoid instead of the usual square or rectangle.

Gerald Santantonio is convinced Cutter, with his attention to detail, symmetry and design, would never allow a weirdly-slanted wall - unless there was a good reason.

Santantonio just hasn’t figured out yet what it could be.

“It is a mystery,” he said.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo