The DeYoung House, a sturdy ten-room Dutch colonial, was the family home of John and Ellen DeYoung. It was built in 1931 from plans Ellen DeYoung found while browsing through a home magazine. Contractor Ed Miller designed this traditional home, whose rounded roof and classic entrance make it as distinctive in Woodinville as it would be in its native New England. Lumber for the home came from the Preston Mill in Preston, 30 miles away. It took six months to build.
All the contractors were local. A Bothell man named Dietrich laid the foundation and his assistant was Bill Morris. Plumbing was done by Nat Manners, a school custodian and bus driver, who did plumbing on the side. Hugo Jacobson did the wiring, L.C. Lynch the plastering, and Olaf Wikdahl did the floors. Most of the plastering and hardwood floors you see today are original from the early 1930s.
The house originally stood on NE 175th Street at 135th NE, on the site where Chase Bank now stands. Back then, the street was a state highway known as the Woodinville-Duvall Road, and it ran through the residential part of town. The road was paved about the time the home was built. The foundation of the house was built by using leftover material from the road construction. This paving was part of a farm-to-market program meant to improve roads to enable farmers to get goods to market more easily.
Upon entering the house through the front door, a classic entry hall leads directly to either the living room, second floor stairway or dining room. The tile fireplace in the living room was installed at a time when tile was just entering the home building scene. The bricklayer, August Bohn, combined large tile blocks of pastel blue and beige to form an interesting pattern on the fireplace.
The interior features high cove ceilings throughout the house. Under the rounded roof and second floor are four bedrooms. Mrs. DeYoung converted the center room on the north side of the house to a sewing room where a window wall gave her natural light. It also provided her an interesting view downward to busy NE 175th Street.
The family came to Woodinville from Kent in 1925 and Mr. DeYoung established Woodinville Mercantile on Front Street, now NE Woodinville Drive. John and Ellen raised their six children (Robert, James, Al, Milford, Lowell, and Anna Frances) in the house. Imagine meals in the cozy nook, also original, in the kitchen.
After John DeYoung passed away, the parcel on which the home stood was sold to Shoreline Savings, which over the years became Chase Bank. Shoreline Savings gave the house to Harlin D. Peterson if he would move it off the property. Peterson had it moved in 1973 to its current location.
In 2008, two of the DeYoung’s sons, Lowell and Al, bought the house and donated it to the Woodinville Heritage Society for a museum. In 2011, after many improvements to the property, the DeYoung house opened to the public as the Woodinville Heritage Museum.
