Hill-Crest
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{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox building
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| image = File:Hill-Crest.jpg
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| building_type = official residence
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| address = 808 36th Avenue East
| location_city = Seattle, Washington
| location_country = United States
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| coordinates = {{Coord|47|37|35.5|N|122|17|10.7|W|scale:1000_region:US|display=title}}
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| current_tenants = Ana Mari Cauce
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| groundbreaking_date = 1907
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| owner = University of Washington
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Hill-Crest (sometimes known as the "Walker-Ames Mansion" or "the 808 House") is the official residence of the president of the University of Washington. As of 2013 it was the single most valuable public university presidential residence in the United States.
History
Built in 1907 by lumber baron Edwin Ames and his wife, the heiress Maud Walker Ames, Hill-Crest was in 1931 bequeathed to the University of Washington, along with most of the rest of the substantial Walker-Ames fortune. The university took possession of the property in 1932 with president Lyle Spencer becoming the mansion's first university occupant. The conditions of the bequest require the president of the university maintain permanent residence in the home and a 2006 request by president Mark Emmert to maintain a separate residence was rejected by the university's board of regents{{mdashb}}despite a flooded basement and other problems with the property{{mdashb}}as it would have forced the university to sell the house.{{cite news|last1=Grffin|first1=Tom|title=Back Pages: Home Pride|url=http://www.washington.edu/alumni/columns/dec07/content/view/84/39/|access-date=3 November 2016|work=Columns|date=December 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170109194306/http://www.washington.edu/alumni/columns/dec07/content/view/84/39/|archive-date=9 January 2017|url-status=dead}}{{cite news|last1=Newman|first1=Jonah|title=For Many Public-College Presidents, Home Is an Uncalculated Benefit|url=http://www.chronicle.com/article/For-Many-Public-College/139187/?cid=at|access-date=3 November 2016|work=Chronicle of Higher Education|date=12 May 2013}}
In the early 2000s the property underwent an $800,000 renovation, following which a $2 million endowment was established by former football player Jim Houston to guarantee its perpetual upkeep.
University president Michael K. Young was married at Hill-Crest in 2011.
=Previous presidential residences=
The University president's first residence was a wood frame structure located between Fourth Avenue and Fifth Avenue in downtown Seattle. It was occupied from 1861 to 1895. The former New York Pavilion of the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition was subsequently renovated to serve as the seat of the president, which it continued to do until 1927 when it was converted for use as academic space.{{cite web|title=President's residence living room, University of Washington, ca. 1920|url=http://digitalcollections.lib.washington.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/uwcampus/id/54/rec/34|website=washington.edu|publisher=University of Washington|access-date=3 November 2016}}
Property
Hill-Crest has 35 rooms, as well as an elevator and a pipe organ, and sits on {{convert|1.4|acres|adj=off}} overlooking Lake Washington. The total interior footprint is {{convert|12,800|sqft|adj=off}}; interiors are decorated in wood paneling, principally Douglas fir and Honduran mahogany. There is a separate carriage house.
{{cite news|last1=Chan|first1=Sharon|author-link=Sharon Chan (journalist) |title=Endowment helps with $540,000 makeover of UW president's home|url=https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/20050125/uwmansion25m/endowment-helps-with-540000-makeover-of-uw-presidents-home|access-date=3 November 2016|work=Seattle Times|date=25 January 2005}}
Hill-Crest's approximate market value, in 2013, was $8.5 million making it then the single most expensive public university presidential residence in the United States and more valuable than the Washington Governor's Mansion.{{cite news|last1=Perry|first1=Nick|title=Emmerts, reluctant tenants, now at home in UW mansion|url=https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/20060430/emmertside30m/emmerts-reluctant-tenants-now-at-home-in-uw-mansion|access-date=3 November 2016|work=Seattle Times|date=30 April 2006}}
The facility is maintained by a full-time, non-residential staff which includes a major domo, chef, gardener, and housekeeper.{{cite news|last1=Gracey|first1=Celeste|title=Hill-Crest Mansion: A look inside the home of UW President Mark Emmert|url=http://www.dailyuw.com/features/article_aef08544-eff6-52fe-aa3a-d2fe73e788bd.html|access-date=3 November 2016|work=Daily of the University of Washington|date=18 February 2008}}
See also
References
{{reflist|30em}}
{{University of Washington|state=collapsed}}
Category:University of Washington campus
Category:Houses completed in 1907