This historic home was built for prominent Tacoma residents John and Ella Snyder in 1905. John Snyder was born in Chillicothe, Ohio in 1852. His father died when he was a young boy, and he went to work as a hat salesman at the age of 14 to support his family. Snyder and his future business partner John Stevens left Detroit after the Panic of 1884 and moved to Tacoma, where they hoped to reinvent themselves as lumbermen. In 1885, Stevens managed to borrow enough money to build a sawmill, thought to be the first at the head of Commencement Bay. Once the business was established, Snyder returned to Ohio to marry Ella Frost and bring her back to Tacoma.
Snyder’s first mill was destroyed by a fire in 1890, but he was elected to the Tacoma City Council soon after in 1892. Snyder was an active member of the council, travelling to Philadelphia to help negotiate the city's purchase of the Tacoma Light and Water Company from C.B. Wright. In 1903, Snyder built a second sawmill on the Puyallup River, a business venture that secured the family’s financial success. Snyder's second mill, Tacoma Door, was the first in Tacoma to successfully manufacture doors from fir.
With their newfound success, the Snyders were able to hire the architectural firm of Russell and Babcock in 1904 to design their house on N. 4th. The home was completed in 1905 at a cost of $5,003. Architect Ambrose Russell is best known for his work on the Tacoma Armory, the Masonic Temple, the Perkins building, Immanuel Presbyterian Church, Tacoma's Rust mansion and the Governor's Mansion in Olympia. The Snyder House reflects a transition from the shingle to Craftsman style of architecture, as interpreted by Ambrose Russell. It retains the height of many of Russell’s earlier designs while incorporating "newer" horizontal Craftsman elements into a largely shingle style format.
Given its storied history and intact architectural details, the Snyder House was added to the Tacoma Register of Historic Places in 2012.