In 1894 Seattle banker Jacob Furth constructed a two-story “Victorian farmhouse” on Yarrow Point. Jacob’s wife, Lucy, planted the surrounding 22 acres with plum trees and ornamentals and named the estate “Barnabee” after Henry Clay Barnabee, one of her favorite stage actors.

The home had 10 rooms and a wide verandah that encircled it on three sides. A wood-burning fireplace and a coal-burning cook stove provided heat. Electricity was generated from a boiler in an outdoor “electric house.”

The Furths, and their descendants the Wetherills, used Barnabee as a summer home in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In the 1940s one of the Furths’ granddaughters, Marjorie Wetherill Baird, made it her permanent home.

The Bairds eventually had the house torn down in 1974. However, some pieces of the building – a china cabinet, interior molding, an antique lantern, and a few of the doors – found their way into the Bairds’ new home.

Much of the land from the original Barnabee estate is now part of the Wetherill Nature Preserve.

Heritage Corner is a feature in the Bellevue Reporter. Material is provided by the Eastside Heritage Center. For more information call 425-450-1049.