Historic Masterpiece Ready for a Fresh Chapter: Rucker Mansion

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The story of the Rucker Mansion is ready for a new chapter.

When Bob and Brenda Kerr bought the Rucker Mansion in 1997 they embarked upon a decades-long journey of lovingly restoring the nationally recognized historic home. 23 years later, the Rucker Mansion is shining brighter than ever, and Bob and Brenda are ready to move on.

For the uninitiated, the Rucker Mansion is special for many reasons. Here’s just a few:

The home was the first in Everett to be added to the National Register of Historic Places.
The Rucker Mansion (which sits atop Everett’s Rucker Hill) was considered Everett’s first suburb. Completed in 1905, in the days of horse-drawn carriages, it was considered “far” from Everett’s downtown-core.
The home was once lived in by Everett’s first female mayor, Joyce Ebert.
The home was built by the Rucker Brothers, Wyatt and Bethel Rucker, Everett’s only founders who actually embraced Everett and stayed here. Their family remained in the area too, including daughter Margaret Rucker, and grandson Bill Rucker who we interviewed on the Live in Everett podcast. They built the home as their personal residence; it was a gift for Bethel’s new bride, Ruby Brown Rucker.

And what a gift it was. The Everett Herald described the house soon after its completion as “Without a doubt one of the finest residences ever constructed in the Northwest”.

The 6 bed, 7 bath, 10,000 square foot mansion is a masterpiece. Four floors. Built from the finest materials from all over the world. There’s also a 4400 square foot carriage house in the back, just beyond the porte-cochère.

Perhaps the most spectacular feature is the choice location of the 2.76-acre lot. Sitting at the highest most western point of Rucker Hill. It’s fourth-floor ballroom and wrap around porch adorned with 28 columns overlooks a breathtaking panoramic view of Port Gardner Bay and Downtown Everett. The view stretches from the Olympic Mountain Range to the Cascades providing postcard-perfect sunrises and sunsets.

It’s the kind of view you could sit and enjoy, well, forever. Which is likely why the Rucker’s chose the location, and also probably why I found Bob and Brenda sitting on the porch enjoying the view when I arrived for a tour.

When I had first talked to Bob he shared that they saw themselves as caretakers and stewards of the home. “We tried to make all the updates as original to the home as possible.”

When they had first bought the mansion it had changed ownership half a dozen times or so. It wasn’t in the greatest shape back then.

There were faded green silk walls in the parlor and most of the original light fixtures had been removed. Various updates weren’t period-appropriate, such as a drab 1950’s kitchen update that looked more fitting for a mid-century cottage than a turn-of-the-century estate.

Touring the home with Bob and Brenda after they spent 20+ years restoring it, their efforts shine clearly. Or maybe I should say “unclearly” considering how seamlessly their painstaking updates blend into the original character.

The Entrance Hall is all original including the only remaining original light fixture. The coffered ceiling and dramatic flecking of the quarter sawn white oak is remarkable.

Period appropriate light fixtures, wall fabrics, hand-laid tiles, and Venetian plaster walls were just a few of their updates. Many of which they did themselves.

They really did put countless thoughts and effort into restoring each room. “When we first saw the home, we were awed, the history, craftsmanship, and architectural lines were like nothing we’d ever seen,” Bob shared.

Walking through the home, I couldn’t help but feel that same sense of awe. It truly felt like a time portal to 1905. I was half expecting the Rucker Brothers themselves to offer me a pipe when we entered the smoking room.

The Smoking Room features leather walls with stunning woodwork made of Honduran Mahogany and Birdseye Maple.

They weren’t there.

Although, one discovery Bob and Brenda did find in the leather-walled smoking room was stone doorways on each side of the fireplace. The doorways had been completely covered up.

The Kerr’s gutted the 1950’s kitchen and matched the original materials and style of the home for the update;.even wrapping the appliances in the new quarter-sawn white oak wood, that architecturally blends flawlessly. And don’t forget the Rojo Coralita marble slabs on the floor that once hung on the walls of the Seattle Opera House.

The La Canche Range was imported from France; whose hand-etched granite backsplash took over three months to render by Russian artist, K. Leonid.

Another stunning recent update was the gorgeous master bathroom. Overlooking the water With built-in crystal-knobbed cabinets, marble slab heated floors and shower with seamless veins, and a beautiful Kallista Circ claw foot bathtub with polished nickel-plated feet. “It’s the same tub Michelle Obama put in the Whitehouse,” Brenda shared.

And unlike many homes of its vintage that have settled over the years (such as my own 1905 home), the structure of the Rucker Mansion feels amazingly sturdy. Built to last with reinforced steel I-beams, timber framing and three-layer thick exterior brick masonry. The Rucker Mansion is here to stay.

And what will they miss most? I asked Bob, “Being with Brenda, enjoying it with Brenda. We’ve had more fun, more memories, the journey has been remarkable. You have to enjoy the journey as you move along. Fix things. Upgrade things. It was Brenda’s vision. She’s the matriarch around here.”

As I left, Bob and Brenda returned to sit on the grand porch. To enjoy the view from the very porch the founders of the city themselves would sit and enjoy. Soaking in their last days as their chapter here comes to an end.

More visionaries like the Rucker’s themselves, like Bob and Brenda Kerr, are sure to come. As the caretakers of the Rucker Mansion come and go, the story of the Rucker Mansion continues.

A historic masterpiece, ready for a fresh chapter.