Born on February 10, 1916, in Coulee City, Washington, builder Rex E. Gill rose to become one of Puget Sound’s largest custom home builders during the post-WWII period. At the height of his company’s operations, the firm had offices in Kirkland, Seattle, Kent and Tacoma, and by 1961 they had built more than 750 homes scattered across the greater Seattle area.

While Gill had an early interest in construction, after graduating from Coulee City High School he studied journalism at Washington State University (WSU). An excellent student, in 1938 he was inducted into Sigma Delta Chi, a National Journalism Honorary Fraternity. However, despite his good grades, his studies at WSU were cut short due to the hard economic times of the Great Depression. Gill did not formally graduate from WSU and instead was forced to take a full-time construction job with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

In the summers he worked construction, even assisting with the building of Grand Coulee Dam. Upon taking a job with Reclamation, Gill was also assigned to work on the initial survey, planning and construction for the U.S. Fish Hatchery in Leavenworth (1938). Two years later he was relocated to Fresno, California, where, at the young age of 24, he became an inspector for the construction of Bureau of Reclamation’s Friant Dam.

Before moving to California, Gill had married Ruth H. Harvey in 1939. The couple had met while in college and Ruth (who was from Spokane and was older than Gill) was working as a teacher in Chehalis at the time of their wedding. Together, they had three children.

After spending time in the military during the war years, Gill and his young family moved back to the Pacific Northwest, settling in Seattle. With his construction experience at hand, he decided to open his own building firm, the Gill Construction Company, around 1951. By the mid-1950s he had convinced his older brother Max to join him in the business.

Max had a background in sales, and with Rex’s journalism training, they formed Cascade Homes in 1957. They began by focusing on the do-it-your-self buyer – creating the basic frame of the house and letting the owner finish out the construction on their own time, a so-called “shell house.”

Deciding to take the process a step further, the Gill brothers decided to finish the houses to a comfortable living stage, “to the point where Mr. & Mrs. Handy could complete the build-out without needing any special skills, all while living in the dwelling and saving rent”. While many builders had been doing this for years, the Gill brothers heavily marketed this concept on a large-volume basis and had an unmatched advertising program.

Their formula was simple. Provide standard quality construction with prefabricated components; use modern, cost-saving construction techniques; develop a broad selection of good, basic architect-designed homes to most any neighborhood – with several variations to fit individual needs; and build directly on the owner’s lot (rather than investing in the cost of land themselves).

Although some buyers had the company complete the entire house, Gill noted that “most buyers usually don’t even wait for us to finish the basic work. They are right there, alongside the workers, with paint brushes in hand”.

The formula worked. In 1957, the first year of their business, they built 30 homes, 70 in the next, and by 1962, 110 homes. Within five years they had built nearly 750 homes. For ease of their customers, Cascade produced a 40+ page brochure which highlighted 24 basic home plans which ranged in price from $9,000 to $19,000. Most of the home models were named after local communities — the Bainbridge, the Camano, the Orcas, the Olympian, the Mercer, and the Victoria. All the plans were provided by University of Washington trained architect Hubert E. Stewart.

In addition to the aforementioned communities, models of Cascade Homes were now being built in Port Orchard, Lynnwood, Edmonds, Mt. Vernon, Bothell, Anacortes, Sedro-Woolley, and Bremerton.

During the mid-to-late 1960s Gill’s private life began to fall apart. He was divorced, remarried, and divorced again in short order. Perhaps in an effort to start anew, Gill moved his primary operations to the Kitsap Peninsula. In 1962 he purchased a local lumber yard and hardware store in Bremerton and renamed it Chico Lumber & Hardware Company. Cascade Homes then became a division within the larger business. Often other firms would build homes under the Cascade Homes name, and by 1968, the Cascade Homes name had disappeared from local and regional newspapers.

However, Gill continued to be involved in building and is credited with projects in Bellingham (1969, under the name Gill Enterprises Inc), and in Oak Harbor (1973, under the name Cascade Corporation). The later projects were developed in conjunction with is son Malcolm, “Mell”.

Gill passed away in Mount Vernon on June 14, 1991, at the age of 75. He was buried at the Langley Woodman Cemetery on Whidbey Island.

– Michael C Houser