"You can tear one down. You can remodel it within an inch of its life." That is how local historian Teresa Knirck described Richland's famous alphabet houses to the Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business, and it is the single fact most buyers get backward before they ever write an offer on one.
People assume a home with this much history comes wrapped in restrictions. It doesn't. Richland's alphabet houses, the roughly 1,600 WWII-era homes built south of Van Giesen Street for Hanford Engineer Works employees, sit outside any historic preservation designation. No commission reviews your remodel plans. No ordinance stops a buyer from adding a second story, gutting the kitchen to the studs, or clearing the lot for something new. That freedom is real, and it changes how you should approach inspection, negotiation, and budget on one of these homes far more than the history lesson does.
What Craigo Finds Behind the Walls
Reid Craigo owns Kohler Plumbing and has worked on his share of alphabet houses. His read on what's actually running through the walls is direct: these homes still carry cast iron drains and galvanized water supply pipes from their original construction. Cast iron holds up for decades, he told the Journal of Business, but eventually it develops problems. Owners often let a slow, non-leaking system ride for years simply because nothing has failed yet.
That is the kind of detail a buyer needs before waiving an inspection contingency to win a bidding situation. A system that hasn't failed is not the same as a system with remaining service life. If you're evaluating an alphabet house, ask your inspector to specifically trace and describe the supply and drain lines rather than accepting a general "plumbing appears functional" note. Galvanized pipe replacement and any needed drain line work are cost items you want quoted before closing, not discovered after.
Ninety Days to Design an Entire City
The compressed timeline behind these homes explains why they share a handful of repeating floor plans instead of one-off custom layouts. Architect Gustav Albin Pehrson, a Spokane-based designer who had worked on that city's Davenport Hotel, was given roughly 90 days in 1943 to design not just the housing but the entire community of Richland, including streets, schools, and commercial buildings. He reportedly turned the assignment down three times before the government made it clear the answer wasn't optional.
Pehrson's solution was a set of standardized layouts, each assigned a letter. An employee's rank determined which letter they were eligible for: chief supervisors and their superiors got the larger D, G, and E homes, while operator-to-foreman classifications were assigned the A and B duplexes. Today those distinctions no longer track who lives where, but they do explain why floor plans vary so widely block to block. A well-preserved E house at 1401 Hains Ave still carries the scalloped architectural details from Pehrson's original drawings, a small signal of how literally some current owners take the phrase "stay true to the house."
Why No One Can Stop You From Tearing One Down
Richland does have a genuinely protected historic area: the Gold Coast Historic District, a separate collection of Cold War-era homes built later as Hanford's reactor program expanded, which met the requirements for the National Register of Historic Places. The alphabet houses, built earlier and concentrated south of Van Giesen Street, did not make that inventory. The distinction sounds technical, but it has a practical result. Gold Coast homes carry the weight of formal historic designation. Alphabet houses carry only the community's informal appreciation for them, which Knirck describes as real but unenforced.
That means a buyer who wants to preserve original windows, doors, and cross-ventilation layout can do so, and plenty of current owners do, including one homeowner who added a first-floor bathroom to her F house roughly 25 years ago while working to keep the addition in character. It also means a buyer who wants to gut the place, expand the footprint, or eventually redevelop the lot faces no historic commission standing between that plan and a building permit. Neither path is protected or restricted by the city. The choice, and the due diligence that comes with it, belongs entirely to the buyer.
What Freedom Actually Costs You at the Inspection Table
No historic commission also means no built-in second set of eyes checking whether a past renovation was done correctly. If a previous owner replaced windows, added a bathroom, or updated wiring without pulling permits, there's no historic review process that would have caught it. That responsibility sits with your inspection team.
A handful of items are worth confirming specifically on any alphabet house purchase, given the home's age and construction era:
- Supply and drain line material and condition, per Craigo's point about cast iron and galvanized pipe
- Electrical panel age and any signs of original wiring still in service behind finished walls
- Whether prior additions or remodels, like a converted bathroom or extended living space, were permitted through the city
- General condition of original single-pane or early-replacement windows, since several owners have kept originals in place for the light and ventilation Pehrson designed around
None of these findings should be a surprise reason to walk away from an 80-year-old home. They're the ordinary cost of buying something built in 1943. The point is to have them priced and negotiated before you close, not discovered afterward as a homeowner.
The Offer-Side Checklist
Before you remove contingencies on an alphabet house, it's worth lining up:
- An inspector with specific experience in pre-1950 housing stock, not just general residential inspection
- A plumber's scope opinion on any visible galvanized or cast iron sections, with a rough replacement estimate if the system shows age
- Confirmation from the city on permit history for any additions or major renovations the listing describes
- A clear-eyed conversation with your agent about whether you're buying to preserve the original character or planning future changes, since that decision shapes what you're willing to negotiate over now versus handle later
A Few Questions Worth Answering Before You Write the Offer
Are Richland's alphabet houses protected by any historic designation? No. The Gold Coast Historic District, a later collection of Cold War-era Richland homes, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The alphabet houses, built earlier and located primarily south of Van Giesen Street, carry no such designation and no historic commission oversight.
Can I add on to or significantly renovate an alphabet house? Yes, subject to the same city permitting process any Richland property owner would follow. There is no historic review board specific to these homes that would need to approve your plans.
Does the lack of historic protection mean these homes are being torn down regularly? Not based on what local sources describe. Community appreciation for the homes runs high, and owners have formed informal networks, including social media groups, to track down period-appropriate doors and fixtures for renovations. The lack of legal protection is a fact about what's permitted, not a prediction about what most owners choose to do.
What should I budget for beyond the purchase price? That depends entirely on the specific home's renovation history, which is why a plumbing-specific inspection scope and a records check with the city are worth the extra step before you finalize an offer.
If you're weighing whether an alphabet house fits what you're looking for in Richland, or trying to figure out what a specific one's history and condition actually add up to, Desert Edge Realty Group can walk through the inspection and offer strategy with you before you're locked into a contingency deadline. Contact us when you're ready to look closer.
