File:Reginald Thomson's home at 1636 34th Ave, Seattle, probably 1900 (PORTRAITS 2309).jpg

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  This house before the street was built. https://digitalcollections.lib.washington.edu/digital/collection/portraits/id/2310
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  This house after the street was built. Note also the regrading. https://digitalcollections.lib.washington.edu/digital/collection/portraits/id/2309
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  2020 photo showing traces of this old street curve

This is almost certainly not at all what the title says it to be. The house in Dutch Colonial style may or may not be associated with Reginald H. Thomson, but it is certainly not 1636 34th Ave. and certainly not circa 1900. Wendi Dunlap, in correspondence, has identified it as almost certainly 2004 34th Ave S, built 1924. She notes that 34th Ave S at the corner of S Plum Street used to curve like this and you can still see the remnant of that, for example, if you look at the location in Google Street View. Comparing to Google Street View, she writes, "Look closely at the roofline going up to the chimney, and the awning over the front door. The windows being different on the upper floor is not that weird after this time, and the ugly layout of those windows now is very unlikely to have been original to the house. (The missing chimney on the far side is entirely normal for an old house, too.)"

Dunlap theorizes that these were Engineering Department photographs to show before/after the sidewalk was built ("but that's just a guess"); that would explain a possible connection to Thomson unrelated to where he lived, because he was head of that department and a big fan of regrading.

As of 2020, there is no way to get a similar photo from public land, because there is now another house in the location this was taken from. Traces of the old curve can be seen in the pavement in File:Seattle - context for old street curve near 2004 34th Ave S.jpg. S Plum Street now makes a sharp right angle with 34th Ave S here.

(Reginald Thomson did, indeed, live at 1636 34th Ave. -- a 1939 Polk's city directory shows him at that address -- but presumably not around 1900. His house at that time, still there, is in an entirely different style from this and was built in 1913. A 1913 Polk's does not list Thomson at all, very odd, given that he was City Engineer at the time. A 1901 Polk's shows Thomson living at 701 Yesler Way on "Profanity Hill", in the area near the city government buildings, right where Interstate 5 now goes through.

Further: a 1933 ad from the Henry Broderick real estate firm shows this house as having been sold by them at that time. The state of the plantings makes it clear that the present photo must be at least several years before 1933, so we can firmly place it in the 1920s.

Also, it seems extremely unlikely that Thomson ever lived here. Putting together what we know about his residences at various dates (both from above and further research by Dunlap):

1901 (Polk's)

701 Yesler Way

1910 (census)

955 13th Avenue N.

1919 (Polk's)

2454 Harvard N. (which would now be 2454 Harvard Ave. E.)

1920 (census)

2454 Harvard N.

1922 (Seattle Times)

1636 34th Av., so we have it down to a two-year window when that became his address

1929 (Polk's)

1636 34th Av. Same in several 1930s Polks.

1930 (census)

Reginald H Thomson, age 74 (with Adeline and Marion), 1636 34th Ave.

1939 (Polk's)

1636 34th Ave.

1940 (census)

1636 34th Ave.

1949

died