4630 Mermont Drive
The Hall House – 4630 Mermont Drive Built in 1952 in the Claremont Glacier View neighborhood, this
was the home of Harold W. and Sarah S. Hall and their four children. Harold Hall, a busy architect
designed this home for his family. An Everett native Hall is remembered today for his impact in Everett
designing what we call today Mid-Century buildings. Some of the most notable were the Everett branch
of Seattle First National Bank building, a major addition to the Medical & Dental Building. He also
designed several exotic new homes. The new family home was so innovative that it merited an article in
the Architectural Record. An Everett Herald story on April 16, 1959 called the Hall dwelling a “symphony
in glass and natural stone…in a natural forest setting”. The house featured activity zoning – divided areas
for divided activities. Upstairs there was a utility core that included the kitchen and laundry, the living
and dining room and the primary bedroom suite. A stone fireplace with a cantilevered hearth and
copper hood, along with floor to ceiling windows defined the living room. The children’s bedrooms,
bathroom, recreation room and train room comprised the lower level. The home looks “modern” to this
day.
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Mid Century Modern design used natural building materials, minimal ornamentation and placed
structures in natural settings. The Hall family home reflects this design. Architect Harold Hall and his
wife Sarah built it on a sloping lot, its modest street level exterior minimizing the home’s large size – 3+
bedrooms, 2.25 baths, a large open kitchen, a gracious dining area, a large family room, a laundry and a
carport. The home features abundant glass and open floor plans to allow plenty of lighting and, on its
lower level, floor-to-ceiling windows that connect the house to its woodland setting.
For the Hall family, the home was a showcase of modern architecture and in 1959 they opened it to the
public in the Snohomish County Medical Auxiliary’s Parade of Homes, a fundraising event that raised
money for medical student scholarships.
In the 1990s the house was extensively remodeled, but its original open-space design has easily
accommodated modernizing. The Hall house was constructed in what was known as the Mermont
district, a development dating back to the late 1930s when it was a distance from the center of town.
Even by 1952 when the Hall house was built, this location was still somewhat remote. While today it is
near a strip mall and other businesses on busy Evergreen Way, and it is now less forested, the
neighborhood still remains a small oasis that is worth driving through to find other interesting homes
nearby.
