Stimson-Green Mansion

11/20/16 Ching sketching on the main floor

Only a month or two before I joined Urban Sketchers in 2012, the group had met at Stimson-Green Mansion, a beautifully restored and maintained building on the National Register of Historic Places. Today I finally had an opportunity to sketch there myself. Although the mansion is available to the public for special events and tours, this morning it was generously opened just for Urban Sketchers Seattle, so we had the entire house to ourselves. (Thanks to David Chamness for arranging that!)

And what a house it is! Although dimly lit in some rooms, enough natural light exposed the details in many areas. The architecture is “primarily of Tudor and Gothic revival, but its eclectic styles also range through Moorish, Romanesque, Neoclassical, and Renaissance influences.” I spent a while simply wandering from room to room and floor to floor, taking photos and trying to imagine what it must have been like for the Stimson family to live there in 1901, and later the Green family (who resided there for 60 years). Seattle doesn’t have many houses from the turn of the previous century, so it was a treat to be able to walk through it, sit on the furniture and sketch whatever we pleased.

11/20/16 Window seat

I was somewhat overwhelmed by the large interior views, so I chose a few details that I thought would hint at some of the house’s grandeur. Light coming in above a window seat, a wall lamp, and two beasts decorating one of several fireplaces all caught my attention. My favorite sketch of the day was of Ching when I captured her from above on the stairway landing. 

11/20/16 Fireplace details

11/20/16 Light fixture

Helen and Terrie in one of the bedrooms

Ching downstairs

Kate

Sketchers everywhere!