Tacoma’s other Rust mansion hits the market. The iconic home can be yours for $4 million

Tacoma’s Rust mansion is on the market.

No, Tacoma’s other Rust mansion.

Chances are, that first sentence brings a specific, iconic home to mind for many readers. Originally envisioned as Tacoma’s “White House of the West,” William Ross Rust’s most famous former home sits prominently along North I Street, a few blocks from the local elementary school, overlooking Commencement Bay. As my colleague Craig Sailor has reported, a local real estate developer purchased the original Rust mansion — built for the copper magnate and namesake of Ruston more than 100 years ago — in late 2021, intent on restoring it to its former glory. Plenty of intrigue over the project has percolated since.

What fewer readers might realize — aside from the history buffs and those who have religiously followed Sailor’s work over the years — is that the Rust family built a second home in the same neighborhood, just a few short blocks away. If you’ve walked North Yakima, you can probably picture it. Along what surely qualifies as one of Tacoma’s most traditionally historic residential streets, the second Rust mansion, at the corner of North 6th, is almost impossible to miss.

Last week, it was listed for sale.

When it was built in 1913, it cost tens of thousands of dollars to construct, a relative fortune adjusted for inflation.

Today it can be yours for $4 million.

‘Worth every penny’

I’ve always wanted to get a look inside the estate at 521 N. Yakima. Situated on a half-acre lot, the home was designed by Frederick Heath — the man responsible for the designs of Stadium and Lincoln high schools and the Pythian Temple on Broadway downtown — and the expansive property looks just as grand from the street as its origins suggest.

On Wednesday, when News Tribune photographer Cheyenne Boone and I rang the doorbell, Maxine McCallum answered, a young son on her hip. McCallum welcomed us inside, and as we stood in a tiled vestibule emblazoned with a prominent Rust R, she began to tell us about how she and her husband Glen came to own one of Tacoma’s most noteworthy homes roughly four years ago, and why they’ve decided to sell it now.

“We expected to stay here forever,” said McCallum, who’s from Germany and met her husband while he was stationed abroad in the military. Together, the couple settled down in Tacoma and now own McCallum & Sons Whisky.

More important to this story, McCallum recently opened a 28-acre horse farm in the Summit-Waller area, where her family — which includes three young children — has decided to relocate.

“The number of children fits great here, but I own a horse farm, and my heart is out there. The horses are out there, and the kids love nothing more than to get on their Gator and drive around or go pull their pony out of a field, and I don’t want to deny them of that,” explained McCallum, whose family in Germany owns a hat company that’s some 200 years old.

“Otherwise, we would have stayed here,” McCallum said.

One of the most interesting things about the Rusts’ second home on North Yakima is that, with very few exceptions, it’s always been just what McCallum envisioned it would be for her — a long-term family residence. It was built shortly after the 1911 death of one of William and Helen Rust’s sons at the age of 24, according to the annals, as an escape from all the old memories that the family’s first home held. While accounts of the death vary, some believe the Rusts’ son died by suicide.

In 1965, nearly 40 years after William Rust’s death, the home was purchased by Rex and Frances Williams for $28,000. The Williams family owned the property until 2018, until it was sold to the McCallums for just over $1.5 million in September 2018.

Although McCallum told The News Tribune that one of the reasons she fell in love with the home was its history — as a European, she said, “the newer built homes here I guess don’t appeal to me as much” — the family has also spent significant time and resources updating the property over the last three years.

The goal, she said, was to preserve and restore the historic exterior — including hunting down the same red Italian tiles that originally sat atop it when the roof was redone and insisting on real copper gutters and downspouts during renovations— while updating the interior for a modern family.

“I love a good project, so I just kind of decided to take it on,” McCallum said.

In total, McCallum said the family spent roughly nine months doing renovations and work on the property, including completely rewiring the home, replacing the plumbing and recreating the large wooden doors on the carriage house. They also took out the swimming pool. Inside, classic features like the warm, oak-covered library, meticulously ornate ceilings, stained glass and the large basement ballroom live on, now complemented by new amenities like a modernized kitchen and a walk-in closet that automatically lights up when you enter.

So how much did it all cost?

McCallum played coy, saying only that whoever eventually buys the property will be getting their money’s worth.

“It’s going to be worth every penny that it’s on the market for,” McCallum said.

“We weren’t remodeling to flip it and turn a profit. It was really to do the home justice and make it amazing.”

Finding a buyer

Jami Luther and Ashley Saldana are the agents now tasked with selling what was originally the Rust family’s second Tacoma mansion.

A mother-and-daughter team, Luther and Saldana said the property is easily the most unique and exciting home they’ve put on the market.

On Wednesday, standing just outside the property, Luther said they’ll be looking for a very specific type of buyer — and not just one with $4 million to spend.

“I think this is going to be an unusual home, just given its history and everything it has to offer,” Luther said. “In North Tacoma, you’ve got so many elegant and beautiful homes, but I believe this is one of the ones that stands out more than any others.”

Asked what type of buyer she’d like to see emerge, McCallum said she’s hoping for a family like her own. Not long ago, she envisioned spending her life here. Now, she’s hoping someone new will fall in love with the history and distinction that first attracted her to the other Rust mansion.

McCallum isn’t in any particular hurry to pack up and leave, she said.

“It is on the more expensive end of Tacoma homes, so I’m really prepared to list it and see what happens. I’m in no rush,” McCallum said.

“That right person will come along.”