Timeless Stump Houses Never Cease to Amuse
From Age-old Makeshift Shelters to Modern Day Getaway
There certainly is a lot of charm in these unusual stump houses as curious visitors photograph and document them from as early as the 1900s to this day. One man even decided to build one of its own and dedicated 22 years to carving out one from the stump of a goliath Sitka Spruce – but it was all well worth the effort. The quirky structure features handmade furniture, built-in shelves, and a cone-shaped, cedar-shingled roof sporting a dormer window and drooping copper peak, and apparently acoustically superior interior.
Tree stumps have long served as temporary shelter for road-weary travelers seeking rest or escape from inclement weather. Moving into one as an actual residence is a whole other matter.
As early as 1847 the pioneering McAllister family… (had) set up shelter by hollowing out a stump and making a “Home Sweet Home” there (at the Medicine Creek area) until they could erect a proper house.
Later, on June 20, 1892, a William D. McDonald opened up the very first U.S. Post Office located in the remote northern portion of the Olympic Peninsula… in a large roofed stump… Today the aging icon still stands.
But the most famous of all local stump houses was one located on the Lennstrom family’s property in the tiny community of Edgecomb. In 1903 the Skagit County Times newspaper offered this description of the stump-house:
“Inside it is one good-sized room, which is boarded up and neatly papered and made as comfortable as any apartment could possibly be made. The walls inside slant inward at the top, which gives one the impression rather that it is an upstairs room, otherwise it is not different from any other room.”
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Elwha Post Office, Washington
Lennstrom family’s 3-bedroom Stump House, Edgecomb, 1901
Noel Wotten’s house, north coast of British Columbia
Stump House at Sunway Kelley, northern Washington
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