Seattle · The Eastside · The islands · Zürich · Geneva
Staff for private houses, placed with care since 1961.
We place house managers, butlers, housekeepers, nannies, private chefs, estate security and companions for older clients with households in Seattle, on the Eastside and the islands, and in Zürich and Geneva. We have never named a client, and we do not intend to start.
Three generations on Queen Anne
An English housekeeper’s card index, kept for sixty-five years
Dorothy Thayer went into service at Larchcombe, a house in mid-Devon, at fourteen, and was its housekeeper at twenty-eight. She came to Seattle in 1957, and in 1961 began finding staff for her employer’s friends from her kitchen table on Queen Anne. Her daughter Joan ran the agency from 1987. Her granddaughter Caroline runs it today, from the house on Tarrant Place it has occupied since 1968.
65years since the first card, dated September 4, 1961
- Permanent placements since 19617,412
- Households we act for312
- Placements in 2025146
- Average permanent placement6 years, 4 months
- Longest placement41 years
The staff we place
Permanent and temporary, live-in and live-out. Every candidate we put forward has been interviewed by us in person, checked by our vetting team and taken up on at least two references by telephone.
- IHouse managers
Run the house, its staff and its budget, so that the family need not.
- IIButlers
Service at table and at the door, the cellar, the silver and the household’s guests.
- IIIHousekeepers
The rooms, the linen and the wardrobe, kept as the family like them kept.
- IVNannies and governesses
From newborn care to the school years, live-in or live-out.
- VPrivate chefs
For families who eat at home, and households that entertain.
- VIEstate security
Residential security officers, gatehouse staff and protective drivers.
- VIICompanions for older clients
Company, conversation and a life kept going, at home.
How a search works
Most permanent searches take about eight weeks from the first conversation to the first day. We visit every household before we place with it. Our fee falls due only when a member of staff starts, and every permanent placement carries a ninety-day guarantee. The placement process · Fees and guarantees
- Week 0 Consultation. At the house.
- Week 1 The brief. Written by us, agreed by you.
- Week 2 Search. Our register first.
- Week 4 Shortlist. Three or four files.
- Week 5 Interviews. At the house or ours.
- Week 7 Trial. Paid, usually two days.
- Week 8 Placement. Agreements signed.
- Week 12 First review. We call both sides.
Where we place
Most of the households we act for live within forty minutes of our office: in Seattle’s older neighborhoods, along the Eastside’s lakeshore, on Mercer and Bainbridge Islands and, in the summer, on the San Juans.
Since 1987 we have also placed with households in Zürich and Geneva, many of them families who live on both sides of the Atlantic and like their staff to know both houses. Beatrice Ferrand looks after them from Geneva.
Our service in Zürich and Geneva
We have had the same house manager for eleven years. Larchcombe found her in five weeks, and I am still not entirely sure how.
From the journal
Notes for households and for the staff we place, and news from Tarrant Place. All entries
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Planning for the holidays
Temporary staff for December, travelling with staff over the winter, and the office’s closure between Christmas Eve and the new year.
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A house manager’s first ninety days
Every household is a small institution with its own history. Notes for the house managers we place on how to join one without breaking anything.
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The Residence Code, fifth edition
The fifth edition of the Residence Code takes effect on April 1. What has changed, and what has not.
For candidates
We place around a hundred and forty people a year, most of them people we have known for some time. If you have at least three years in private service or in a fine hotel, and references we can speak to, we would like to meet you. We never charge candidates a fee.