HARD DRIVE TO THE KLONDIKE:
PROMOTING SEATTLE DURING THE GOLD RUSH

A Historic Resource Study for the Seattle Unit of the
Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park

George Carmack House

Architectural Description

The George Carmack (1910-1922) residence is located at the corner of East Jefferson and 16th Avenue. It is a two and a half-story Colonial Revival house with a rectangular plan and a side-gambrel roof. This wood frame building is clad with white-painted clapboards at the first floor and shingles above. Dense vegetation currently surrounds the property, making it difficult to view the house. The original porch, which stretches across the front of the house (facing East Jefferson), has been enclosed with corrugated plastic siding. On the second floor above the porch is a shed roof dormer with bay windows. At the first level on the 16^th Avenue side of the house is a bay with three double-hung windows. Like most of the building's lights, these windows have multiple panes above and a single pane below. Another bay with two double-hung windows and a bracketed eve is located above the first-story bay. Over the years, this building has undergone few exterior alterations.

Historical Significance

George Washington Carmack, the "official discover of Klondike gold," lived in this house from 1910 until 1922. On August 16, 1897, Carmack discovered gold along Bonzana Creek, a tributary of the Klondike River. Carmack was married to a Tagish Indian woman named Kate. When he discovered the gold, he was accompanied by two Tagish men Skookum Jim Mason, and Dawson (Tagish) Charley. By filing a claim first, Carmack became credited with finding the Klondike lode. After Carmack arrived in Seattle on July 17, 1897, the stampede to the Klondike began. [45]

When Carmack and his wife disposed of their holdings in the Klondike, they moved to Seattle where they took residence at the prestigious Hotel Seattle. Kate Carmack did not enjoy living in Seattle and returned to her northern home. [46] Carmack soon thereafter married a woman named Marguerite. Carmack eventually left the Hotel Seattle, but continued residing in the Pioneer Square area. From 1905 until 1909, he lived in a house at 3007 East Denny Way, which has since been removed. By 1910, Carmack moved to 1522 East Jefferson. According to Seattle City Directories, Carmack lived at this address until he died in 1922. [47] Marguerite Carmack continued living in the house until the 1940s. A considerable amount of development has occurred around this house, which is still used as a residential structure.