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Seattle Neighborhoods
Neighborhoods Click on the name or plus (+) sign to get an idea about a neighborhood.
- Ballard
Ballard is a neighborhood in Seattle, Washington. Incorporated as an independent city in 1890, it was annexed by Seattle in 1907, but has retained much of its old Scandinavian flavor. Its major landmarks include the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks (usually referred to as the "Ballard Locks" locally), the Nordic Heritage Museum, and Golden Gardens Park. It is bounded by Crown Hill, north of N.W. 85th Street; Phinney Ridge and Fremont, east of 8th Avenue N.W.; Salmon Bay (part of the Lake Washington Ship Canal) to the south; and Shilshole Bay (part of Puget Sound) to the west.
The first homesteader in the area was one Ira Wilcox Utter, who filed his claim in 1852. Thirty-six years later, John Leary, Judge Thomas Burke, and railroader Daniel H. Gilman formed the West Coast Improvement Company to develop Burke's land holdings in the area in anticipation of the coming of the Great Northern Railway, whose tracks would be laid along the Salmon Bay coastline on their way to Interbay and points south. They also had a spur built off the main line of the Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railroad from Fremont. Three miles (5 km) of this line are now operated as the Ballard Terminal Railroad, which runs along Salmon Bay from N.W. 40th Street to the BNSF Railway mainline at N.W. 67th.
William Rankin Ballard, owner of land adjoining Judge Burke's holdings, subsequently joined Burke, Leary, and Gilman, and took over management of the development, then called Gilman Park. Upon incorporation in 1890, the settlement took Ballard's name, and operated as an independent city for 17 years.
By 1900, Ballard's population of 4,568 made it the seventh largest city in Washington, and the town continued to boom, growing to 17,000 by 1907. Growth was quickly overwhelming the city’s ability to provide services, particularly a safe water supply, and Ballard’s citizens were increasingly considering asking Seattle to annex their town. The plan was voted down in 1905, but 15 months later annexation won out, and the town officially became part of Seattle on May 29, 1907. On that day, Ballard citizens showed their mixed feelings about the change by draping their city hall with black crepe and flying the flag at half mast.
The neighborhood's main thoroughfares are Seaview, 32nd, 24th, Leary, 15th, and 8th Avenues N.W. (north- and southbound), and N.W. Leary Way and N.W. 85th, 80th, 65th, and Market Streets (east- and westbound). The Ballard Bridge carries 15th Avenue over Salmon Bay to Interbay, and the Salmon Bay Bridge carries the BNSF Railway tracks over the bay, west of the locks.
Signs at the 2006 Ballard Seafood Festival reflect Ballard's Scandinavian and maritime heritageBallard is the traditional center of Seattle's ethnically Scandinavian seafaring community, although in recent years the decline of the fishing industry and gentrification have both made inroads into the actual demographics. For years, Ballard remained a cliché in local humor, especially its reputation for overly cautious, elderly drivers. The Seattle-based comedy show Almost Live! often made reference to Ballard, especially in the recurring "Cops in Ballard" sketch.
Ballard also contains Ballard High School, soon to be the largest in the district.
Ballard Avenue N.W. between N.W. Market Street and N.W. Dock Place was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.
- Belltown
Belltown is the most densely populated neighborhood in Seattle, Washington, United States, located on the city's downtown waterfront, on land that was artificially flattened as part of a regrading project. Formerly a low-rent, semi-industrial arts district, in recent decades it has transformed into a neighbourhood of trendy restaurants, boutiques, nightclubs, and residential towers as well as warehouses and art galleries. Although many new businesses have eclipsed older ones, some venerated establishments still draw crowds of loyal patrons. It is possible both to purchase bed linens and bathroom fixtures and to dine at cheap restaurants open twenty-four hours a day after frequenting the area's nightclubs. The neighbourhood has recently experienced an increase in its population of retirees, young office workers.
- Beacon Hill
Beacon Hill is a hill and neighborhood in southeast Seattle, Washington. The municipal government subdivides it into North Beacon Hill, Mid-Beacon Hill, Holly Park, and South Beacon Hill,[1] though most people who live there simply call it "Beacon Hill." Home to the world headquarters of Amazon.com and the Seattle Division of the Department of Veterans Affairs' Puget Sound Health Care System, the hill offers views of downtown, the Industrial District, Elliott Bay, First Hill, Rainier Valley, and, when the weather is good, Mount Rainier and the Olympic Mountains. It is roughly bounded on the west by Interstate 5, on the north by Interstate 90, on the east by Rainier Avenue South, Cheasty Boulevard South, and Martin Luther King Junior Way South, and on the south by the Seattle city boundary. Homes on the northern part of the hill were mostly built in the early 1900s; thus, North Beacon Hill contains many excellent examples of Craftsman bungalows and "Seattle box houses" (a local variant of the Foursquare style).
- Broadview
Broadview is a neighborhood in northwestern Seattle, Washington, USA.
Broadview is bounded on the west by Puget Sound; on the north by N.W. 145th Street, beyond which is the city of Shoreline; on the east by Greenwood Avenue N., beyond which lies the neighborhood of Bitter Lake; and on the south by N.W. 105th Street and Carkeek Park, beyond which, from west to east, are the neighborhoods of Blue Ridge, Green Arbor, Crown Hill, and Greenwood.
On the western edge of Broadview is a bluff, below which runs the BNSF Railway mainline along Puget Sound. Carkeek Park occupies the southwest corner of the neighborhood along the shoreline. Within it is Piper's Creek.
- Capitol Hill
Capitol Hill is the second most densely populated neighborhood in Seattle, Washington, United States, after Belltown (north of downtown). It is the center of gay life in Seattle and also a center of the city's counterculture, while also home to some of the city's grandest mansions and many attractions.
The origin of the neighborhood's name is disputed. According to one story, James A. Moore, the real estate developer who platted much of the area, named it thus in the hope that the Washington government would move to Seattle from Olympia. According to another, Moore named it after the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Denver, Colorado, his wife's hometown. It is thought by the editors of HistoryLink that the true story is a combination of the two.
Prior to Moore's naming it so in 1901, Capitol Hill was known as Broadway Hill.
Due to its one-time large Roman Catholic population, Capitol Hill was frequently referred to as Catholic Hill up until the 1950s.[citation needed]
Geography
Capitol Hill, seen across Lake Union and the Eastlake neighborhood, looking east from Queen Anne.Capitol Hill is bounded by Interstate 5 to the west, beyond which are Downtown, Cascade, and Eastlake; by Washington State Route 520 and Interlaken Park to the north, beyond which is Montlake; by E. Pike and E. Madison Streets to the south, beyond which are First Hill and the Central District; and by 23rd and 24th Avenues E. to the east, beyond which is Madison Valley.
Its main thoroughfares are Lakeview Boulevard E.; Bellevue, 10th, 12th, 15th, and 19th Avenues E.; and Broadway (north- and southbound) and E. Pine, E. Pike, E. John, E. Thomas, and E. Aloha Streets and E. Olive Way (east- and westbound). Of these streets, large portions of Pike, Pine, Broadway, 15th and, to a slightly lesser extent, Olive, are lined almost continuously with streetfront businesses.
The highest point on Capitol Hill, at 444.5 feet above sea level, is in Volunteer Park, adjacent to the water tower. Capitol Hill is also responsible for half of Seattle's 12 steepest street grades: 21% on E. Roy Street between 25th and 26th Avenues E. (eastern slope), 19% on E. Boston Street between Harvard Avenue E. and Broadway E. (western slope) and on E. Ward Street between 25th and 26th Avenues E. (eastern slope), and 18% on E. Highland Drive between 24th and 25th Avenues E. (eastern slope), on E. Lee Street between 24th and 25th Avenues E. (eastern slope), and on E. Roy Street between Melrose and Bellevue Avenues E. (western slope).
Ambience
Capitol Hill c. 1917
A Frederick Anhalt apartment building on Harvard Avenue E.Always an eclectic neighborhood, since about 1980 Capitol Hill has also had a reputation as the center of gay life in Seattle, although it has never been as exclusively gay as The Castro in San Francisco. Seattle's main gay pride parade abandoned the hill in 2006 for a route from Downtown Seattle to the Seattle Center fairgrounds, drawing a crowd estimated at 75,000, but the so-called "dyke march" and a neighborhood pride parade still drew a crowd estimated at 50,000. In 2007, two parades will be held, one returning to Capitol Hill and another in the new route along Seattle Center.[1]
It also has a reputation as the heart of trendy Seattle, and was the neighborhood most closely associated with the grunge scene, although most of the best-known music venues of that era were actually located slightly outside the neighborhood. Further, Capitol Hill is heavily associated with drugs and street life by area residents. In this sense, the neighborhood more closely resembles San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury neighborhood than The Castro.
A stroll down Broadway or through Cal Anderson Park reveals a wide diversity of people, with couples walking dogs, punks hanging out on street corners, technology workers who commute to work across Lake Washington buying groceries and, in the evenings, club-goers from all over Seattle and Bellevue visiting the scene for a night out. Shopping in the numerous retail stores and boutiques offers everything from African art to Hot Topic and there are many used and vintage clothing stores on Broadway, a few art galleries along East Pike and Pine Streets, and music stores specializing in hip-hop, dance and electronica, gothic and industrial, or rare used records.
Most of the Hill's major thoroughfares are dotted with coffeehouses, taverns and bars, and residences cover the gamut from modest motel-like studio apartment buildings to some of the city's grandest and most venerable mansions, with the two extremes sometimes cheek-by-jowl.
The neighborhood figures prominently in nightlife and entertainment, with many bars hosting live music and with numerous fringe theatres. Capitol Hill is also home to two of the city's best-known movie theaters, both of them part of the Landmark Theatres chain and both of them architectural conversions of private meeting halls: the Harvard Exit, in the former home of the Women's Century Club (converted in the early 1970s) and the Egyptian Theatre, in a former Masonic lodge (converted in the mid-1980s). The Broadway Performance Hall, located on the campus of Seattle Central Community College, also hosts a variety of lectures, performances, and films.
- Central District
The Central District has long been known to have a high crime rate. In the 1980s and 90s, the neighborhood struggled with gang violence, most noticeably with the West Coast Crips and Bloods in a similar way to Tacoma's Hilltop neighborhood. This has declined significantly in recent years. Crime statistics have changed drastically in the last decade, with general crime in the neighborhood higher than some Seattle neighborhoods, but by no means the highest. See Seattle Police Department crime data: http://web1.seattle.gov/seastats/doStatistics.aspx
Famous residents of the neighborhood have included Jimi Hendrix and Quincy Jones. Both attended Garfield High School, possibly Seattle's most well known school. Sir Mix-a-Lot also hails from the Central District and has a number of songs that acknowledge street names and important areas.
The Central District's main thoroughfares are Martin Luther King Jr. Way (formerly Empire Way; the street was renamed in late 1983 after a nearly three-year battle) and 23rd Avenue (north- and southbound) and E. Union, E. Cherry, and E. Jefferson Streets and E. Yesler Way (east- and westbound).
The neighborhoods population is 22,200. 42.6% of residents are white or caucasian, 36.4% are black or African American, 7.8% Asian, 1.2% Native American, 0.5% Pacific Islander, 6.9% Hispanic, and 5.3% mixed race. 15.6% of families and 19.6% of the population are below poverty line.
- Downtown
Downtown is the central business district of Seattle, Washington. It is fairly compact compared to other city centers on the West Coast because of its geographical situation: hemmed in on the north and east by hills, on the west by Elliott Bay, and on the south by reclaimed land that was once tidal flats. It is bounded on the north by Denny Way, beyond which are Uptown, Seattle Center, and South Lake Union; on the east by Interstate 5, beyond which are Capitol Hill and First Hill; on the south by Yesler Way, beyond which is the International District and part of Pioneer Square; and on the west by Elliott Bay. Belltown, the Denny Regrade, and the rest of Pioneer Square are sub-neighborhoods of Downtown. Seattle's main financial district, waterfront, and shopping area (surrounding Westlake Center and connected to Seattle Center by way of a monorail) make up the bulk of Downtown. It is also home to the landmark Pike Place Market.
Downtown Seattle's Columbia Center has a greater number of floors than any other building west of the Mississippi River, at seventy-six, though there are taller buildings in Texas and California by height. (Smith Tower, in the older section of Downtown near the waterfront, once held the title of tallest American building west of the Mississippi.) Other notable buildings are the Washington Mutual Tower, Two Union Square, Nordstrom’s flagship store, Benaroya Hall, the new Seattle Central Library designed by Rem Koolhaas, and an expanded art museum, the main facade of which was designed by Robert Venturi.
Downtown parks include Westlake Park, Freeway Park, and Victor Steinbrueck Park. The Olympic Sculpture Park was completed on the Belltown waterfront in January 2007.
Because Downtown is the actual name of a neighborhood, not merely a toponym for a city's central business district or southernmost section (as it is in other places), and because of Downtown's growing residential population, it is grammatically correct for Seattleites to describe a location as "in Downtown." (For example, "I work in Downtown," instead of "I work downtown.")
- Eastlake
Eastlake is a neighborhood in Seattle, Washington, so named because of its location on the eastern shore of Lake Union. Its main thoroughfare is Eastlake Avenue E., which runs from Howell Street at the northeast corner of Downtown north over the University Bridge to the University District, where it connects to Roosevelt Way N.E. and 11th Avenue N.E. A second thoroughfare is Boylston Avenue E.; as an arterial, it parallels Interstate 5 for the four blocks between E. Newton Street to the south and E. Roanoke Street to the north, acting as an extension of Capitol Hill's Lakeview Boulevard E.
Eastlake is bounded on the west by Lake Union; on the north by Portage Bay, beyond which is the University District; on the east by Interstate 5, beyond which is Capitol Hill; and on the south by E. Garfield Street, beyond which is the Cascade neighborhood.
The neighborhood contains a mixture of residential buildings, both houses and apartments, and small businesses, especially on Eastlake Avenue. Though populated by all manner of Seattleites, Eastlake is a particularly attractive location for people with ties to the University of Washington, which can be reached quickly by a number of bus routes. The neighborhood is also home to, among other things, 14 Carrot Cafe (formerly Julia's 14 Carrot Cafe), The Lake Union Dry Dock Company, Louisa's Bakery and Cafe, Pazzo's Pizza, Serafina, Pete's (a small grocery store with a wide selection of wines), Daly's (famous for its hamburgers and fish and chips), the original Red Robin gourmet burger restaurant, numerous houseboats, and the annual Eastlake Shake fair (renamed Lake Fest in 2006), held in a closed-off section of Franklin Avenue E. between E. Roanoke and E. Louisa Streets on the playground of the TOPS@Seward public school. The fair features live music, local vendors, and--a neighborhood favorite--the Eastlake Shake Pet Parade.
- Fremont
Fremont is a neighborhood in Seattle, Washington. Named after Fremont, Nebraska, the hometown of two of its founders, L. H. Griffith and E. Blewett, it is situated along the Fremont Cut of the Lake Washington Ship Canal to the north of Queen Anne, the east of Ballard, the south of Phinney Ridge, and the southwest of Wallingford. Its boundaries are not formally fixed, but they can be thought of as consisting of the Ship Canal to the south, Stone Way N. to the east, N. 50th Street to the north, and 8th Avenue N.W. to the west.
The neighborhood's main thoroughfares are Fremont and Aurora Avenues N. (north- and southbound) and N. 46th, 45th, 36th, and 34th Streets (east- and westbound). The Aurora Bridge (George Washington Memorial Bridge) carries Aurora Avenue (Washington State Route 99) over the Ship Canal to the top of Queen Anne Hill, and the Fremont Bridge carries Fremont Avenue over the canal to the hill's base.
The Statue of Lenin in FremontSometimes referred to as "The People's Republic of Fremont," and at one time a center of the counterculture, Fremont has somewhat gentrified in recent years. The neighborhood remains home to a controversial statue of Lenin salvaged from Slovakia by a local art lover who was teaching in the area at the time. After the 1989 fall of the Communist government, he brought the statue to Fremont with money raised through a mortgage on his house. In addition to Lenin is the Fremont Troll, an 18-foot tall concrete sculpture of a troll crushing a Volkswagen Beetle in its left hand, created in 1990 and situated under the north end of the Aurora Bridge. The street running under the bridge and ending at the Troll was renamed Troll Avenue N. in 2005. In addition, signs throughout Fremont give such helpful advice as "Set your watch ahead five minutes", "Set your watch back five minutes" and "Throw your watch away." Other landmarks include an old rocket fuselage [1] and the outdoor sculpture Waiting for the Interurban.
- Georgetown
- Industrial area south of Seattle
- Green Lake
Green Lake is a neighborhood in north central Seattle, Washington, USA. Its centerpiece is the lake and park after which it is named.
Its generally accepted boundaries are Interstate 5 to the east, beyond which lies Roosevelt and Maple Leaf; N 85th Street to the north, beyond which lies the neighborhood surrounding North Seattle Community College, known by some as North College Park; Aurora Avenue N (Washington State Route 99) to the west, beyond which lies Phinney Ridge, and N 50th Street and Woodland Park to the south, beyond which lies Wallingford.
Its main thoroughfares are the circumferential road around the lake, known at different points as East Green Lake Way N, East Green Lake Drive N, West Green Lake Drive N, Aurora Avenue N, and West Green Lake Way N; N 65th, N 71st, and N 80th Streets (east- and westbound); Wallingford Avenue N and 1st, 5th, Latona, and Woodlawn Avenues NE (generally north- and southbound but following the contours of the shoreline at some points); Green Lake Drive N and NE Ravenna Boulevard (northwest- and southeast-bound); and Winona Avenue N (northeast- and southwest-bound).
- Greenwood
The generally accepted boundaries of Greenwood are Aurora Avenue N. (Washington State Route 99) to the east, beyond which lies Licton Springs; N. 105th Street/Holman Road to the north, beyond which lie Broadview and Bitter Lake; 8th Avenue N.W. to the west, beyond which lies Crown Hill, and N. 80th Street to the south, beyond which lies Phinney Ridge. The boundary between Greenwood and Phinney Ridge is somewhat nebulous, and the two neighborhoods do joint planning for events and share a Chamber of Commerce.
The primary north/south thoroughfare through Greenwood is Greenwood Avenue North. North 85th Street carries traffic east to Interstate 5 and west to Golden Gardens Park. Greenwood Avenue carried city streetcar and Seattle-Everett interurban passenger railroad traffic during the first half of the twentieth century.
Originally named Woodland, the neighborhood became Greenwood in 1907. The section of the neighborhood north of 85th street was not annexed to the city of Seattle until 1954; this later access to city services is still evident in the many streets without sidewalks in the northern section of the neighborhood.
Greenwood is served by the North Cluster of the Seattle School District. Primary schools in Greenwood include Greenwood Elementary and Bagley Elementary with several others in nearby neighborhoods. No high school is located within the North Cluster but Nathan Hale, Roosevelt, Ballard, and Ingraham are all nearby.
- International District
The International District of Seattle, Washington (also known as Chinatown and the I.D.) has been called the only place in the continental United States where Chinese Americans, Japanese Americans, Filipino Americans, Vietnamese Americans, Korean Americans, Laotian Americans, Cambodian Americans, and other Asian Americans live in one neighborhood. The portion east of Interstate 5 and north of South Lane Street has been dubbed "Little Saigon" because of the high concentration of Vietnamese businesses there.
The neighborhood is generally viewed as encompassing the blocks east of Fifth Avenue S., beyond which are Pioneer Square and SoDo; west of Boren and Rainier Avenues S., beyond which is Rainier Valley; north of S. Dearborn Street, beyond which are Beacon Hill and the Industrial District; and south of S. Main Street, beyond which is Downtown and First Hill. Its main thoroughfares are 12th Avenue S. (north- and southbound) and S. Jackson Street (east- and westbound).
Hing Hay Park, at the corner of S. King Street and Maynard Avenue S., is considered a hub of the International District. The Wing Luke Asian Museum is an important cultural institution in the neighborhood, as was the Nippon Kan Theatre until its recent closure. Kobe Terrace/Danny Woo Garden, on the steep slope between I-5 and S. Main Street, is another important site, where many neighborhood residents have urban gardens.
Perhaps the neighborhood's most notable establishment is the Asian supermarket Uwajimaya. Across Fifth Avenue from Uwajimaya Village is the Union Station office complex, built where abandoned Union Pacific Railroad tracks once ran, and home to much of Amazon.com's operations.
- Laurelhurst
Laurelhurst is an affluent residential neighborhood in Seattle, Washington, USA. It is bounded on the northeast by Ivanhoe Place N.E., beyond which is Windermere; on the northwest by Sand Point Way N.E. and N.E. 45th Street, beyond which are Hawthorne Hills, Ravenna, and University Village; on the west by Mary Gates Memorial Drive N.E., beyond which is the East Campus of the University of Washington; on the east by Lake Washington; and on the southwest by Union Bay. Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center is located in its northwest corner. The area has been a part of Seattle since 1910.
In recent years, the neighborhood has been experiencing growth in the retail and customer service sectors due to the successful expansion of the local mall, University Village.
Today's Laurelhurst is a high-end community of mostly large homes, many with eye-filling views of Mount Rainier and Lake Washington.
Laurelhurst is a tight-knit community with a strong community center and PTA. The Laurelhurst Beach Club is a favorite among children during the summer and is where Bill Gates swam as a boy. Laurelhurst Park and Community Center serves as a gathering place, offering programs and special events including an annual salmon bake held on the first Thursday in August.
Laurelhurst has seen its fair share of celebrities, including Melanie Griffith and Antonio Banderas, who have rented a house on the waterfront; Hillary Rodham Clinton, who was seen at a dinner party hosted by residents Stan and Alta Barer; Gary Larson, creator of The Far Side, who lived in Laurelhurst before moving to Windermere; and musician Duff McKagan, bassist for Guns N' Roses
Despite its WASPy, blue-blood reputation, residents insist Laurelhurst is not pretentious. Nor is everyone a millionaire, though some are and have waterfront mansions to prove it. The median home price in the neighborhood is $785,000, over double the regional figure of $325,000.
- Leschi
Leschi borders Lake Washington on the east; Interstate 90 on the south, Martin Luther King, Jr. Way South on its west, and East Cherry Street on the north.
- Madison Park
Madison Park is a neighborhood in east central Seattle, Washington, USA, named after the city park at the foot of E. Madison Street on the Lake Washington shore. It is bounded on the east by Lake Washington; on the south by E. Prospect Street, beyond which is Denny-Blaine; on the west by 38th and 37th Avenues E., beyond which are Washington Park and the private Broadmoor community and golf course; and on the north by Union Bay.
Madison Park with Union Bay in the foreground and Mount Rainier behindThe neighborhood's main thoroughfares are E. Madison Street (northeast- and southwest-bound) and McGilvra Boulevard E. (north- and southbound).
Madison Park used to be a popular destination for people who lived in Downtown Seattle. Though very close to the city center, it was seen as a summer getaway, with a cable car leading over the hills to the lake, park, and swimming beach.
Today Madison Park has a number of restaurants, including Sostanza (expensive, high-end Italian food), Mad Pizza (A Fun Pizza Parlor), Madison Park Bakery (Fresh Baked Goods), Cactus (Mexican and Southwestern food), and Bing's (American fare, very family-friendly).
It also has a number of shops: Madison Hardware, Tina's on Masison, Red Apple: Berts, and it used to be home to the beloved Madison Books bookstore, which was bought out a few years back by a cloth store.
- Madrona
- Magnolia
Magnolia is the second largest neighborhood of Seattle, Washington by area. It occupies a hilly peninsula northwest of downtown. Magnolia is isolated from the rest of Seattle, connected by road to the rest of the city by only three bridges over the tracks of the BNSF Railway: W. Emerson Place in the north, W. Dravus Street in the center, and W. Garfield Street (the Magnolia Bridge) in the south. It has been a part of the city since 1891. A good portion of the peninsula is taken up by Discovery Park, formerly the U.S. Army's Fort Lawton.
Magnolia is bounded on the north by Salmon Bay and Shilshole Bay of the Lake Washington Ship Canal, across which is Ballard; on the west by Puget Sound and Elliott Bay; on the south by Elliott Bay and Smith Cove; and on the east by Thorndyke, 20th, and Gilman Avenues W., beyond which is Interbay.
Although magnolia trees do line W. McGraw Street in the neighborhood's commercial district, Magnolia's naming was actually a misnomer. While out at sea, Captain Vancouver saw the huge madrona trees atop the peninsula's southern bluffs but mistook them for magnolias and noted this the ship's log. Groups are actively working to save the remaining madronas on the bluff.
On Magnolia's south end is Magnolia Park, overlooking Puget Sound, Mount Rainier, and the city skyline. It features a picnic area and tennis courts across the street. Also in Magnolia are Smith Cove and its marina. Discovery Park, in the northwest, encompasses 534 acres and is Seattle's largest park. The park is home to eagles, herons, falcons, foxes, and beavers. Seven miles of trails provide visitors with a wilderness experience and views of Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains. Parts of Fort Lawton, such as the officer's homes and other historic buildings, remain in the park.
Adjacent to Discovery Park is West Point Lighthouse. It was built in 1881 and is the oldest lighthouse in the area. Walking trails descend from the park to two miles of beach and the lighthouse.
Another highlight is the local branch of the Seattle Public Library, designed in 1964 by architects Paul Hayden Kirk and Richard Haag, who won top awards for design from the American Library Association. In the children's section is a statue of a young girl titled "Girl Holding Doves," designed by Ebba Rapp McLauchlan. Outside hangs a bronze wall sculpture titled "Activity of Thought," an abstract piece of art designed especially for the library by Glenn Alps. The library is furnished with solid walnut tables and chairs custom designed by George Nakashima.
Magnolia's business district is home to many specialty stores and professional services, some of Seattle's top restaurants, and industrial and marine services.
Magnolia Audio Video, a regional electronics retailer now owned by Best Buy, was started in and named after the neighborhood.
- Montlake
Montlake is an affluent residential neighborhood in central Seattle. It is bounded to the north by Portage Bay and the Montlake Cut section of the Lake Washington Ship Canal, to the east by the Washington Park Arboretum, and to the south and west by Interlaken Park. Capitol Hill is on its south and west sides, and the University of Washington lies across the Montlake Cut to the north. Washington State Route 520 runs through the northern tip of Montlake, isolating four blocks from the rest of the neighborhood. Though sports at the University of Washington are often referred to metonymically as "Montlake," it should be noted that UW sports facilities are not located within the traditional bounds of the neighborhood (but are located on Montlake Boulevard N.E., across the Montlake Cut from the neighborhood).[1]
The neighborhood's main thoroughfares are Boyer Avenue E. (northwest- and southeast-bound), 24th Avenue E. and Lake Washington and Montlake Boulevards E. (north- and southbound), and E. Lake Washington Boulevard (east- and westbound).
Montlake was primarily developed by John E. Boyer and Herbert Turner, also known as H.S. Turner, from 1903 through the early 1930s. In 1916, the northern boundary of Montlake was fixed by the opening of the New Portage Canal, later known as the Montlake Cut, between Lake Washington and Lake Union. The Montlake Bridge, a distinctive bascule bridge crossing the Montlake Cut, opened in 1925.
Montlake has one church, the Greek Orthodox St. Demetrios, built in 1963 on the grounds of a former garden business called Dahlialand. Montlake is also the current home of the Museum of History and Industry (1952) as well as the Seattle Yacht Club (1920) and the Montlake Fisheries Laboratory (1931), a National Marine Fisheries Service lab.
There is a very small commercial corridor in Montlake along 24th Avenue East. It includes noted Italian restaurant Cafe Lago, neighborhood pub Montlake Alehouse, a Seattle Public Library branch, a small market and dry cleaner.
The houses in Montlake are primarily single-family homes, mainly early 20th century bungalow and Tudor style. Also distinctive are the Old Seattle-style brick and wood frame homes of the early 20th century, particularly those bordering the Montlake Community Center.
The Montlake Community Club, an organization of neighborhood residents, has a distinguished history of grassroots activism. (Critics have called it NIMBY-ism.) Montlake first became politically active in a failed battle to move or avoid building State Route 520 through the northern section of the neighborhood and the arboretum. The neighborhood's efforts were unsuccessful and SR-520 was opened in 1963.
A more politically saavy Montlake Community Club helped to end the R.H. Thomson expressway project of the 1960s. The original plan was to run a second north-south freeway through the city, parallel to Interstate 5 but cutting through the heart of Ravenna, Montlake, Madison Valley, and the Central District, taking out the western section of the Arboretum in the process. It was designed as a bypass around Downtown for through traffic. Interchanges with Washington State Route 520 and I-90 were planned and the 520 interchange was partially built, but the project was halted before construction went further. Never-used on- and off-ramps still stand at the north end of the Arboretum as a reminder.
Members of the Montlake community continue to negotiate with state and local officials over planned improvements to SR-520 and other local roads. Recently, a neighborhood group called Better Bridge endorsed a proposal to expand SR-520 to six lanes, move it north, and build a lid over the existing 520 freeway to reconnect the Shelby and Hamlin blocks to the rest of the neighborhood. The proposal has been endorsed by some members of Seattle City Council but has not yet been formally approved.
Montlake saw a spike in housing prices and the demolition or renovation of several smaller homes starting in the late 1980s, as new residents bought up properties in the neighborhood because of its charm, good schools, and central location.
Like much of residential Seattle, Montlake is known for staunchly progressive politics, with John Kerry receiving victories ranging from around 4-to-1 to over 9-to-1.
- Mount Baker
- Mount Baker is a neighborhood in Southeast Seattle. A geographically diverse area, it offers a mix of parklands, lakefront, wooded hills, and quiet residential streets and boulevards. It is bounded by Lake Washington to the east, Interstate 90 and then Leschi to the north, Rainier Valley to the west, and Lakewood to the south. 4,600 households reside here with people from ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds every bit as varied as the landscape. The neighborhood has a rich architectural heritage, extraordinary recreational opportunities, a lively award-winning community club, and a respected rowing team. It hosts Seattle's annual Seafair, which includes an airshow featuring the U.S. Navy Blue Angels, hydroplane races, a fireworks show, and other festivities.
- Northgate
Northgate is an informal district of neighborhoods in north urban Seattle, Washington, named for and surrounding Northgate Mall, the first covered mall in the United States.[1] Its east-west principal arterials are NE Northgate Way and 130th Street, and its north-south principal arterials are Roosevelt Way NE and Aurora Avenue N (SR 99). Minor arterials are College Way-Meridian Avenue N, 1st, 5th, and 15th avenues NE.[2] Interstate 5 runs through the district. Besides the eponymous mall, the most characteristic distinctions of the area are North Seattle Community College (NSCC), the south fork of the Thornton Creek watershed, and the mosque.
Northgate neighborhoods are (north to south):
Haller Lake and
Pinehurst,
Licton Springs (North College Park) and
Maple Leaf
map[3]
As well as the informal district of neighborhoods, Northgate is also Northgate Mall, the shopping center within the Maple Leaf neighborhood of Northgate.[4]
North College Park became defined with the Licton Springs neighborhood with the establishment of North Seattle Community College (NSCC), opened 1970.[5] Licton Springs takes its name from Liq'tid (LEEK-teed) or Licton, the Lushootseed (Whulshootseed) Coast Salish word for the reddish mud of the springs—one of the few Puget Sound Salish words still used as a place name.[6]
As headwaters of the south fork of the Thornton Creek watershed, Sunny Walter-Pillings Pond and NSCC wetland in Licton Springs–North College Park are headwaters of Thornton Creek under the Northgate Mall development. These neighborhoods are natural extensions of Maple Leaf downstream.[7] Neighborhood activists and NSCC have been promoting habitat restoration in support.[8]
The Sheihk Idriss Mosque in Pinehurst has architecture unique in Seattle. An octagonal dome and a symbolic minaret, both sheathed in copper and capped with crescent moons, red brick walls banded with buff brick and tall glass-block windows topped with concrete lintels in the shape of Moorish arches distinguish the first mosque in Seattle (1981) and the first mosque west of the Mississippi River to be built in a Middle Eastern design.[9]
The Northgate Mall, opened in 1950, is the first regional shopping center called a mall, though there are 3 other shopping centers in the United States which predate it. [1] At the time of its opening, it was located outside of the Seattle city limits, though this is no longer the case.
Surrounding the Northgate Mall is another mall as well as many strip malls, a line of stores with a parking lot, often in front.
While there is much commerce in the area, hotel development has been limited with only the Hotel Nexus, previously a Ramada Inn, being the only upscale hotel in the area. The many motels on Aurora Avenue is further northwest than the Northgate neighborhood.
What is now Northgate has been inhabited since the end of the last glacial period (c. 8,000 B.C.E.—10,000 years ago). The Dkhw’Duw’Absh, People of the Inside and Xacuabš, People of the Large Lake,[10] Lushootseed (Skagit-Nisqually) Coast Salish native people had used the Liq'tid Springs area as a spiritual health spa. They harvested cranberries from the Slo’q `qed (SLOQ-qed, bald head), an 85 acre (34 ha) marsh and bog at what is now the NSCC car park, Interstate 5 interchange, and Northgate Mall. Large open areas for game habitat and foraging (anthropogenic grasslands) were maintained in what are now these neighborhoods by selective burning every few years. Today the Native American descendents are represented by the Duwamish Tribe
- Phinney Ridge
Phinney Ridge, also known simply as Phinney, is a neighborhood in north central Seattle, Washington, USA. It is named after the ridge which runs north and south, separating Ballard from Green Lake, from approximately N. 45th to N. 85th Street. The ridge, in turn, is named after Guy C. Phinney, lumber mill owner and real estate developer, whose estate was bought by the city and turned into Woodland Park in 1899. Phinney's estate had included a private menagerie, and the western half of the park became what is now the Woodland Park Zoo.
The generally accepted boundaries of Phinney Ridge are Aurora Avenue N. ( Washington State Route 99) to the east, beyond which lies Green Lake and the eastern half of Woodland Park; N. 80th Street to the north, beyond which lies Greenwood; 8th Avenue N.W. to the west, beyond which lies Ballard, and N. 50th and Market Streets to the south, beyond which lies Fremont. Phinney Ridge's main thoroughfare, which runs atop the ridge south of N. 67th Street, is Phinney Avenue N. North of N. 67th Street, the arterial swings a block to the west and becomes Greenwood Avenue N. The route is lined with many small businesses and shops, as well as the Phinney Neighborhood Center, located at the corner of Phinney and 67th. It has occupied the former John B. Allen Elementary School building, which was built in 1904, since 1981, when the school closed. Phinney Ridge's main east-west thoroughfare is N. 65th Street.
- Pioneer Square
- Pioneer Square is the neighborhood where Seattle, Washington was founded in 1852, following a brief six month settlement at Alki Point. It is now a National Historic District. It is bounded by Alaskan Way S. on the west, beyond which are the docks of Elliott Bay; by S. King Street on the south, beyond which is SoDo; by 4th Avenue S. on the east, beyond which is the International District; and extends between one and two blocks north of Yesler Way, beyond which is the rest of Downtown. Because of the shift in the street grid north of Yesler, the northern "border" of the neighborhood zigzags along numerous streets.
- Ravenna
- Sand Point
- Seward Park
Seward Park is a neighborhood in southeast Seattle, Washington just west of the park of the same name. The park itself occupies all of Bailey Peninsula, a prominent, forested peninsula that juts into Lake Washington.
The neighborhood is bounded on the east by the lake, on the north by S Genesee Street, on the south by S Kenyon Street, and on the west by Rainier Avenue S.
What is now Seward Park neighborhood has been inhabited since the end of the last glacial period (c. 8,000 B.C.E.—10,000 years ago). The Xacuabš (hah-chu-ahbsh, Lake People or People of the Large Lake) were related to, but distinct from, the Dkhw'Duw'Absh, People of the Inside, tribe of the Lushootseed (Skagit-Nisqually) Coast Salish Nations. Both are now (c. mid 1850s) of the Duwamish tribe. The Xacuabš had a village of two longhouses (khwaac'ál'al, forerunners of cohousing condominiums, housing tens of people in each one) at xaxao'Ltc (ha-HAO-hlch, the “sacred or taboo place”), at or near what is now Brighton Beach. Villages were diffuse. Other khwaac'ál'al were on the southwest lake shore at SExti'tcb (“by means of swimming”, Bryn Mawr), at TL’Ltcus (TLEELH-chus, “little island”, Pritchard’s Island), and north at Leschi Park.[1]
The peninsula that now forms Seward Park was skEba’kst (skuh-BAHKST, “nose”), and the isthmus was cqa'lapsEb (TSKAH-lap-suhb, “neck”). The isthmus was only a few hundred feet wide and flooded seasonally, turning the peninsula into an island (the lake level was some 9 ft (3m) higher or more). A large wetland and marsh was north of what is now the park entrance circle, at what is now Andrews Bay. The lake, bay, wetlands, and peninsula were rich in resources. Prairie or tall grassland areas (anthropogenic grasslands) were maintained at what is now Brighton–Seward Park, as well as numerous other locations in what is now Seattle.
Besides providing food, the lake was home to powerful spirits. The previously mentioned xaxao'lc ("taboo place") at Brighton Beach south of the peninsula was named for a supernatural spirit who was said to live in the lake there. The unusual sound of the babbling waters place indicated its presence. Near Colman Park lived an ?ya’hos, a horned spirit that was associated with landslides and earthquakes. Remarkably, this is the approximate location of the Seattle Fault, which moved more than 20 ft (6.1 m) vertically about 1100 years ago. This quake caused a landslide at South Point on Mercer Island, sending a large section of forest into the lake—en masse, intact and upright. Little earth beings were said to inhabit the tree stumps there and drove insane a man trying to harvest the bark from the stumps. The preserved forest was discovered and destroyed when the lake was lowered in 1916–17.
The 300 acres (121 ha) of Seward Park has about a 120 acre (48.6 ha) surviving remnant of old growth forest, providing a glimpse of what some of the lake shore looked like before the city of Seattle. With trees older than 250 years and many less than 200, the Seward Park forest is relatively young (the forests of Seattle before the city were fully mature, up through 1,000–2,000 years old).[2]
One of the earliest White settlers, E. A. Clark, was influential in the life of Cheshiahud, a young man at the time, the mid 1850s.[3]
Seward Park, which was first settled by Whites in great numbers in the 1880s, is built on the largest residential hill in Seattle.[citation needed] In a series of annexations, the neighborhood joined the town of Southeast Seattle, which then joined the City of Seattle in 1907.[4]
Around a quarter of the residents are African American, and another quarter Asian American, most of the remainder being White. The neighborhood has been a hub of Orthodox Jewish life for nearly 40 years. The oldest synagogue in Washington state, Bikur Cholim-Machzikay Hadath, is located there, as are Sephardic Bikur Holim Congregation and Congregation Ezra Bessaroth. 90% of Orthodox Jews in Seattle are said to live within a mile of one of the synagogues, though more recent arrivals have been settling north of the Lake Washington Ship Canal in Wedgwood, Hawthorne Hills, and Ravenna and in nearby communities such as Mercer Island.[citation needed]
The average price of a house in the neighborhood is about $500,000. 80% of residents own their homes. [1]
Seward Park is home to Whitworth and Graham Hill elementary schools.
- Sodo
SoDo is a neighborhood in Seattle, Washington, that makes up part of the city's Industrial District. It is bounded on the north by South King Street, beyond which is Pioneer Square; on the south by South Spokane Street, beyond which is more of the Industrial District; on the west by the Duwamish Waterway, across which is West Seattle; and on the east by the Metro Busway, beyond which is the International District and the rest of the Industrial District.
SoDo was originally named for being located South of the (King)dome, but since the stadium's demolition in 2000, the name has been rebranded as meaning South of Downtown, and extends a bit further north to include Seattle's downtown stadium district of the Seattle Mariners' Safeco Field ballpark and the Seattle Seahawks' Qwest Field stadium. Qwest Field was built on the former Kingdome site.
SoDo deliberately echoes SoHo in New York City, where, during the 1970s, cheap spaces vacated by departing factories were converted by artists into lofts and studios; SoDo has undergone a similar process but has not experienced much of the gentrification experienced by its putative model.
SoDo is home to Safeco Field, where the Seattle Mariners play Major League baseball, and to Qwest Field, built where the Kingdome once stood, where the Seattle Seahawks play NFL football. The Mariner's popular marketing campaign in the early 2000s used the SoDo moniker in the catchphrase "Sodo Mojo."
Some of SoDo's warehouse buildings remain in their original use; others have been carved up for artists' lofts, art galleries, and an assortment of other businesses. One building directly across from Safeco Field houses Pyramid Breweries, Inc. downstairs and a variety of small offices upstairs. As one travels further south along First Avenue S., these conversions peter out, and light manufacturing, warehouses, and warehouse-style retail stores predominate. Starbucks world headquarters is housed in a converted Sears building at First Avenue S. and S. Lander Street.
SoDo's main thoroughfares are First and Fourth Avenues S. and Alaskan Way S. (north- and south-bound) and S. Lander and Holgate Streets, Edgar Martinez Drive S., and S. Royal Brougham Way (east- and west-bound).
According to the 2000 U.S. Census, SoDo has a population of 2,602, with a median age of 41.2; 458 residences are owner-occupied and 536 are rented. (This probably slightly understates the population, because there are a certain number of artists living illegally in studio spaces that are not zoned residential, plus a small resident homeless population.) The average annual household income is given as $42,208; the racial breakdown is 41% White, 28% Asian, 14% Black, 9% Hispanic/Latino, 3% American Indian/Alaska Native, and 5% other. [1]
- Queen Anne
Queen Anne Hill is a neighborhood and hill in Seattle, Washington. The hill is the highest named hill in Seattle, Washington, with a maximum elevation of 456 feet (139 m), though the highest point in the city is the aptly named High Point in West Seattle, at 520 feet (158 m). Queen Anne is situated just north of Seattle Center and just south of Fremont across the Lake Washington Ship Canal. The hill early became a popular spot for the city's economic and cultural elite to build their mansions (the name derives from the architectural style, typical of so many of the early homes).
Mansions on W. Highland Drive, next to Kerry ParkAs a neighborhood toponym, Queen Anne can refer either to the entire hill or to the central residential and business district at the top of the hill. It is to be distinguished from Lower Queen Anne, also known as Uptown which refers to the area at the southern base of the hill, just north of Seattle Center.
Queen Anne is bounded on the north by the Fremont Cut of the Ship Canal, beyond which is Fremont; on the west by 15th Avenue W. and Elliott Avenue W., beyond which is Interbay, Magnolia, and Elliott Bay ; on the east by Aurora Avenue N. (Washington State Route 99), beyond which is Westlake and Lake Union; and on the south by Denny Way, beyond which is Belltown. Seattle Pacific University is located on its north slope across from Fremont.
Its main thoroughfares are Gilman Drive W.; 15th, Elliott, 10th, 6th, and 3rd Avenues W.; and Queen Anne, 5th, Taylor, and Aurora Avenues N. (north- and southbound) and Denny Way; Mercer, Boston, W. McGraw, and W. Nickerson Streets; and Queen Anne Drive (east- and westbound). Portions of several of these streets reflect a comprehensive boulevard design by the Olmsted Brothers architectural firm, Queen Anne Boulevard, intended as a 3-mile loop around the crown of the hill. The design was never fully executed, but it remains part of the Seattle Parks System. Queen Anne can be reached from Interstate 5 by taking the Mercer Street Exit (Exit 167).
- University District
- The University District (commonly, the U District) is a neighborhood in Seattle, Washington, so named because the main campus of the University of Washington (UW) is located there. The UW moved in two years after the area was annexed to Seattle, while much of the area was still clear cut forest or stump farmland. The district of neighborhoods grew with the university to become a microcosm (for better and worse) of urban American cities
- University Village
University Village is an upscale shopping center in Seattle, Washington, built at the south corner of Ravenna neighborhood.[1] The 24 acre (97,000 m²) shopping center was built in 1956 across NE 45th Street on an earlier part of the Montlake Landfill (since 1911, 1922-1966; home of J. P. Patches 1958-1981), taking out what remained of the Union Bay Marsh that was drained by the lowering of Lake Washington as a result of the opening of the Lake Washington Ship Canal (1913-1916).[2] Some wetland was later partially restored as the Union Bay Natural Area with the Center for Urban Horticulture.[3]
Until the early 1990s, the character of University Village was decidedly different. Most of its businesses were small, and the chain stores were all local: Ernst Home & Nursery, Malmo Nurseries (acquired by Ernst), Lamonts Department Store (acquired by Gottschalks, 2000),[4] Pay 'n Save Drugs, and QFC (a grocery). Many of the businesses began to falter toward the end of the 1980s, however, and in 1993 the owners of the mall decided to sell. The chairman of QFC and a partner bought it, and tenants such as those mentioned above began to move in. U-Village, as it is colloquially known, no longer has a hardware store, but features upscale national stores such as Restoration Hardware, Pottery Barn, Miller-Pollard, Banana Republic, and Crate & Barrel instead (as well as related local specialty stores). Despite this, 61% of U-Village merchants are still local. (The Ernst and Pay n' Save corporate chains went out of business in the 1990s; adjacent QFC still nominally exists, but as a division of Kroger.)
University Village Stores
Layout and Stores at U. VillageAnchor tenants today are Barnes and Noble, local and family-owned Bartell Drugs (since 1890),[5] Crate & Barrel, The Gap, and Pottery Barn.[6] Significant adjacent anchors are the Seattle QFC flagship store, a large Safeway, and an Office Depot. In 1991, neighborhood activists initiated a campaign with the City to "daylight" Ravenna Creek through Ravenna Park to Lake Washington, but the segment from the park to the University of Washington (UW) and the Union Bay Natural Area was successfully blocked by the owners of University Village.[7]
The campus of the UW is to the west and south, the neighborhood of Bryant farther to the east, and the neighborhood of Ravenna to the north,[8] but portions of the surrounding neighborhoods are often referred to as being in "University Village" themselves, approximately west to 22nd Avenue NE, north to NE 55th Street, and east to Union Bay Place NE and 30th Avenue NE. The area's principal arterials are 25th Avenue NE and NE 45th Street; 35th Avenue is a minor arterial. Collector arterials are NE Blakeley-Union Bay Place NE and NE 55th streets.[9]
- Wallingford
Wallingford is a neighborhood in north central Seattle, Washington, named after John Noble Wallingford (died 1913). The QFC supermarket at the corner of N 45th Street and Wallingford Avenue N may be regarded as the center of the neighborhood; its large WALLINGFORD neon sign is made in part from letters in the old FOOD GIANT sign that adorned QFC's predecessor for decades.
John Noble Wallingford was a major local landowner and real estate speculator; at one time his holdings included most of what is now Wallingford and extended north as far as Green Lake. He travelled considerably up and down the West Coast of the United States and lived for a time in Alaska, but Seattle in general, and the neighborhood now named after him in particular, remained his major place of investment.
Wallingford's business district extends along N 45th Street from Stone Way N in the west to Sunnyside Avenue N in the east and features many small shops, two banks, a pharmacy, a few taverns and bars, the two Guild 45th movie theaters, the Wallingford Center (the former Interlake Elementary School, now turned into shops and apartments), and numerous restaurants (including the original Dick's Drive-In, founded 1954). Nearby, just south of N 45th, is the former (Abraham) Lincoln High School, closed in 1981, now used primarily to house public high schools "in exile" while their own buildings undergo major renovations. (Ballard High School was rebuilt in 1997-1999, and Roosevelt High School (Seattle) in 2004-2006. Garfield High School currently occupies Lincoln and will do so until 2008.) Just north of N 45th is Meridian Park, including the Good Shepherd Center, a former Roman Catholic home for wayward girls, now a community center, also home to the Tilth center with urban gardening demo plots.
Like neighboring Fremont (and, indeed, most Seattle neighborhoods), Wallingford's boundaries are not fixed, but they may be thought of as Stone Way N to the west, beyond which is Fremont; Lake Union to the south; Interstate 5 to the east, beyond which is the University District; and Woodland Park and NE 60th St. to the north, beyond which is Green Lake. The secondary concentration of mostly retail businesses on N 55th Street near Meridian Avenue is known variously as Tangletown or Meridian and considered by some to be outside of Wallingford proper. The likely source for the name Tangletown is the irregular configuration of the blocks, some of which follow the contours of Green Lake, others conforming to the city's basic grid. Meridian sometimes refers to a wider neighborhood than Tangletown, which refers strictly to the retail district. The region south of N 40th Street is also known as Northlake.
Gas Works Park on Lake Union is on a peninsula that juts into Lake Union from Wallingford just south of the Burke-Gilman Trail. To the northwest of Wallingford is Woodland Park, featuring the Woodland Park Zoo and a rose garden.
Annual events in the neighborhood include the Wallingford Wurst Festival and the What's Cookin' in Wallingford food festival, as well as the Family Fourth fireworks show every Independence Day at Gas Works Park.
- West Seattle
West Seattle, a hilly district in Seattle, Washington, encompasses all of Seattle west of the Duwamish River. It was incorporated as an independent town in 1902 and was annexed by Seattle in 1907. Among the area's attractions are its saltwater beach parks along Elliott Bay and Puget Sound, including Alki Beach and Lincoln Park among others. The area is also prized for its magnificent views of the Olympic Mountains to the west and the Cascade Range to the east.
- Windermere
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