Greenwood is a neighborhood in north central Seattle, Washington

Seattle, Washington

Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...

, USA.

The neighborhood's primary north/south arterial is Greenwood Avenue North. The primary east/west arterial is North 85th Street, which carries traffic east to Interstate 5 and west to Golden Gardens Park

Golden Gardens Park

Golden Gardens Park is a public park in Ballard, a neighborhood in Seattle, Washington. The park includes wetlands, beaches, hiking trails, and picnic and playground areas. The park is bisected by the BNSF Railway railway.- Recreation :...

. The intersection of these arterials is the busiest in the neighborhood and also its commercial center, with numerous bars, restaurants, coffee houses, and specialty stores along both arterials, especially on Greenwood Avenue between North 85th Street and North 87th Street.

As with other Seattle neighborhoods Greenwood has no exact boundaries. The generally accepted boundaries are Aurora Avenue N. (State Route 99

Washington State Route 99

State Route 99, abbreviated SR 99, commonly called Highway 99, is a numbered state highway in the U.S. state of Washington extending just under from Fife in the south to Everett in the north, with a gap in Tukwila.-Southern division:...

) to the east, beyond which lies Licton Springs

Licton Springs, Seattle, Washington

Licton Springs or North College Park is a neighborhood in the informal Northgate district of North Seattle. It is bounded by Interstate 5 to the east, beyond which is Maple Leaf neighborhood and the Northgate Mall; Aurora Avenue N to the west, beyond which is Greenwood; N 85th Street to the south,...

; N. 105th Street/Holman Road to the north, beyond which lie Broadview

Broadview, Seattle, Washington

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...

 and Bitter Lake

Bitter Lake, Seattle, Washington

Bitter Lake is a neighborhood in Seattle, Washington, USA, named after its most notable feature, Bitter Lake. It was a mostly natural forest of Douglas-fir and Western Redcedar, inhabited by Native Americans, until the late 19th century. Development especially picked up when the Seattle-to-Everett...

; 8th Avenue N.W. to the west, beyond which lies Crown Hill

Crown Hill, Seattle, Washington

There is also a Crown Hill Cemetery, in Indianapolis, IndianaCrown Hill is a neighborhood in the city of Seattle, in the US state of Washington.The neighborhood is bounded on the south by N.W...

, and N. 80th Street to the south, beyond which lies Phinney Ridge

Phinney Ridge, Seattle, Washington

Phinney Ridge 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...

. The division between Greenwood and Phinney Ridge is even more nebulous; the two neighborhoods plan events jointly and share a Chamber of Commerce.

The neighborhood hosts the "Greenwood Classic Car Show" which began in 1993 and is traditionally held on the last Saturday in June. Another event is the "Greenwood Seafair

Seafair

Seafair is a summer festival in Seattle, Washington, USA that encompasses a wide variety of small neighborhood events leading up to several major city-wide celebrations...

 Parade", held on the last Wednesday in July. Both events draw thousands of visitors to the neighborhood annually.

Schools and Public Services

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

Nathan Hale High School

Nathan Hale High School is a public high school in Seattle, Washington. Nathan Hale is part of the Coalition of Essential Schools.-Early years:...

, Roosevelt, Ballard, and Ingraham

Ingraham High School

Ingraham High School is a public high school serving grades 9-12 located in the Haller Lake neighborhood of Seattle, Washington, USA. Opened in 1959, it is named after Edward Sturgis Ingraham, the first superintendent of the Seattle Public Schools. Since 2002, Ingraham has been an International...

 are all nearby. Schools that sit in the neighborhood are Greenwood Elementary School and St. John Catholic School.

The neighborhood has had its own branch of the Seattle Public Library

Seattle Public Library

The Seattle Public Library is the public library system serving Seattle, Washington, USA. It was officially established by the city in 1890, though there had been efforts to start a Seattle library as early as 1868. There are 26 branches in the system, most of them named after the neighborhoods in...

 since 1928. The current Greenwood branch building was completed in 2005. Recreation areas maintained by the City of Seattle include Sandel Park and Greenwood Park. Greenwood has its own post office

United States Postal Service

The United States Postal Service is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for providing postal service in the United States...

, which shares zip code 98103 with the larger Wallingford branch.

Geological issues

Greenwood has some areas where streets and sidewalks have been damaged due to irregular settlement of the soil. Such effects are most apparent in the blocks immediately northwest of Greenwood and 85th. The heart of Greenwood lies atop a peat

Peat

Peat is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation matter or histosol. Peat forms in wetland bogs, moors, muskegs, pocosins, mires, and peat swamp forests. Peat is harvested as an important source of fuel in certain parts of the world...

 deposit, also known as a bog

Bog

A bog, quagmire or mire is a wetland that accumulates acidic peat, a deposit of dead plant material—often mosses or, in Arctic climates, lichens....

. The area was molded into a bowl shape after the last glacial retreat, that was in turn, filled with runoff of dead plants that created the peat bog.

Once the groundwater recedes, peat compresses, causing building settlement that cannot be undone. Due to the issues surrounding new developments that have created an impervious surface, and have diverted rainwater to city sewers, on August 22, 2008 the city has added peat bogs to the list of Environmentally Critical Areas. This is intended to encourage building techniques that would stabilize the ground water area and reduce building settlement in the neighborhood.

History

Originally named Woodland, the neighborhood became Greenwood in 1907. Greenwood Avenue carried city streetcar and Seattle-Everett

Everett, Washington

Everett is the county seat of and the largest city in Snohomish County, Washington, United States. Named for Everett Colby, son of founder Charles L. Colby, it lies north of Seattle. The city had a total population of 103,019 at the 2010 census, making it the 6th largest in the state and...

 interurban passenger railroad traffic during the first half of the twentieth century.

The section of the neighborhood north of 85th Street was annexed

Annexation

Annexation is the de jure incorporation of some territory into another geo-political entity . Usually, it is implied that the territory and population being annexed is the smaller, more peripheral, and weaker of the two merging entities, barring physical size...

 to the city of Seattle in 1954. Many residents of the area voted for annexation believing that the city would build sidewalks in their neighborhood. However, it remains highly doubtful that city officials ever actually made such a promise. More than 50 years later many residential streets north of 85th Street are still without sidewalks.

2009 Arson Investigation

In 2009, Greenwood experienced several dramatic arson

Arson

Arson is the crime of intentionally or maliciously setting fire to structures or wildland areas. It may be distinguished from other causes such as spontaneous combustion and natural wildfires...

 fires. On August 13, fire was set a private home on Northwest 84th Street, seriously injuring a man and causing $170,000 damage.

The largest fire, on October 23, burned one building to the ground near the intersection of North 85th Street and Greenwood Avenue North. Four businesses were destroyed: the Green Bean Coffee house; Phở Tic Tac; Szechuan Bistro; and C.C. Teriyaki. The October 23rd fire also did significant damage to neighboring buildings such as the historic Taproot Theatre Company

Taproot Theatre Company

Taproot Theatre Company is a professional, non-profit theatre company in Seattle, Washington, with a multi-faceted production program. Founded in 1976, Taproot Theatre has mainstage productions, at its location in the Greenwood neighborhood, touring productions through the Pacific Northwest, and...

. A $10,000 reward was offered.

Two more fires occurred on November 5. The Rosewood Guitar store at 84th and Greenwood sustained major smoke and water damage. Three fires occurred on November 9. The most severe of these caused $20,000 worth of damage to the Olive You restaurant on Greenwood Avenue North.

On November 13, 2009, Seattle police arrested a 46-year-old homeless man who frequented the neighborhood. The suspect had an arson record and had been spotted at the scene of three previous fires. The suspect initially pled innocent to 12 charges, but in May 2010 he changed his plea to guilty and was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

External links

• Greenwood-Phinney Chamber of Commerce