Licton Springs, Seattle, Washington
Encyclopedia
Northgate, Seattle, Washington
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....
district of North Seattle. It is bounded by Interstate 5 to the east, beyond which is Maple Leaf
Maple Leaf, Seattle, Washington
Maple Leaf is a mostly residential neighborhood in Seattle, originally a rural suburb named Maple Leaf Addition to the Green Lake Tract or Green Lake Circle...
neighborhood and the Northgate Mall
Northgate Mall (Seattle)
Northgate Mall is a shopping mall in the Northgate district of north urban Seattle, Washington. It is currently anchored by Bed Bath & Beyond, Toys "R" Us, JCPenney, Macy's and Nordstrom.-History:...
; Aurora Avenue N (SR 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 west, beyond which is Greenwood
Greenwood, Seattle, Washington
Greenwood is a neighborhood in north central Seattle, Washington, 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...
; N 85th Street to the south, beyond which is Green Lake
Green Lake, Seattle, Washington
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 lie Roosevelt and Maple Leaf; N 85th Street to the north, beyond which lies the...
, and N 105th Street and N Northgate Way to the north, beyond which is Haller Lake
Haller Lake, Seattle, Washington
Haller Lake is a small lake and neighborhood in north central Seattle, Washington, named for Theodore N. Haller, who platted the neighborhood in 1905. His father, Granville O...
.
Licton Springs
Lushootseed
Lushootseed is the language or dialect continuum of several SalishNative American groups of modern-day Washington state...
Coast Salish
Coast Salish
Coast Salish languages are a subgroup of the Salishan language family. These languages are spoken by First Nations or Native American peoples inhabiting the territory that is now the southwest coast of British Columbia around the Strait of Georgia and Washington state around Puget Sound...
word for the reddish mud of the springs—. The Dkhw’Duw’Absh, People of the Inside and Xacuabš, People of the Large Lake, Lushootseed (Skagit-Nisqually) Coast Salish native people had used the springs area as a spiritual health spa since the area was populated after the last glacial period (c. 8,000 BCE—10,000 years ago). In the 1850s, the Dkhw’Duw’Absh and Xacuabš became the Duwamish tribe of today.
European settlement
Seattle pioneer David DennyDenny Party
The Denny Party is a group of white pioneers credited with founding Seattle, Washington because they settled at Alki Point on November 13, 1851.A wagon party headed by Arthur A. Denny left Cherry Grove, Illinois on April 10, 1851...
built a summer cabin near the springs around 1870. The natural spring
Spring (hydrosphere)
A spring—also known as a rising or resurgence—is a component of the hydrosphere. Specifically, it is any natural situation where water flows to the surface of the earth from underground...
fed Green Lake
Green Lake (Seattle)
Green Lake is a freshwater lake in north central Seattle, Washington, USA, within Green Lake Park. The park is surrounded by the Green Lake neighborhood to the north and east, the Wallingford neighborhood to the south, the Phinney Ridge neighborhood to the west, and Woodland Park to the southwest...
before it was capped and drained to the Metro sewer system after it became contaminated by residential development (1920, 1931). The Olmsted Brothers
Olmsted Brothers
The Olmsted Brothers company was an influential landscape design firm in the United States, formed in 1898 by stepbrothers John Charles Olmsted and Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. .-History:...
designed a park for Licton Springs, as part of a grand streets and parks plan for Seattle (1930s), but this park was never implemented. A park does exist today (where Woodlawn Avenue curves to connect with N 95th Street) in which the spring is located. In the mid-1960s restoration began with bond issues and increasing volunteer assistance, resulting in a small pond and natural wetland vegetation as well as urban park amenities. A Native American presence continues in the neighborhood through the Indian Heritage School at Wilson-Pacific. This school hosts frequent Indian Pow Wows and spectacular wall murals by Indian artist Andrew Morrison.
Interurban
An interurban, also called a radial railway in parts of Canada, is a type of electric passenger railroad; in short a hybrid between tram and train. Interurbans enjoyed widespread popularity in the first three decades of the twentieth century in North America. Until the early 1920s, most roads were...
Railway Company (1900–1936) came past the neighborhood in 1906. The trolleys became a part of everyday life and development of residential neighborhoods around trolley stops. Running on a narrow right-of-way through backyards, the whistle became part of the atmosphere of neighborhoods like Licton Springs. In the early years, the line ran through cut forest and rural farms. A few sawmills along the way gave the line a business hauling lumber. The rough wagon road became Aurora Avenue N (1930) after being paved with brick (1913) and asphalt (1928). A most distinctive early feature was the motorist "tourist camps", "auto camps", and later, "auto courts", then the now-familiar motels. One or two still remained at the turn of the 20th century.
The Pilling family had a dairy farm (1909–1933), out of which grew the waterfowl habitat and birding site of Pilling's Pond
Pilling's Pond
Pilling's Pond is a privately owned, urban waterfowl reserve and breeding ground, located in the North Seattle Licton Springs neighborhood. It was created by lifetime resident Charles A. Pilling and has been the site of notable bird breeding feats, as well as acting as a roadside attraction since...
today. Japanese-Americans had greenhouses and small farms until they were abruptly forcibly removed with the Japanese American
Japanese American internment
Japanese-American internment was the relocation and internment by the United States government in 1942 of approximately 110,000 Japanese Americans and Japanese who lived along the Pacific coast of the United States to camps called "War Relocation Camps," in the wake of Imperial Japan's attack on...
Internment
Internment
Internment is the imprisonment or confinement of people, commonly in large groups, without trial. The Oxford English Dictionary gives the meaning as: "The action of 'interning'; confinement within the limits of a country or place." Most modern usage is about individuals, and there is a distinction...
(1942–1945).
North College Park
Seattle annexed most of North Seattle in 1954. North College Park became defined with the Licton Springs neighborhood with the establishment of North Seattle Community CollegeNorth Seattle Community College
North Seattle Community College is a two-year community college in Seattle, Washington. It is one of the three colleges comprising the Seattle Community College District , and one of the 32 member colleges of the Washington Community and Technical Colleges system.Founded in 1970, NSCC is...
(1970).
Licton Springs and the Sunny Walter–Pillings Pond are part of the Densmore Drainage Basin. The springs at the North Police Precinct and North Seattle Community College are headwaters of the south fork of Thornton Creek
Thornton Creek
Thornton Creek is 18 miles of urban creeks and tributaries from southeast Shoreline through northeast Seattle to Lake Washington. The creek is the largest watershed in Seattle, draining a region of relatively dense biodiversity for an urban setting, home to frogs, newts, ducks, other birds, and...
; this fork flows through culverts under I-5 and the south lot of Northgate Mall
Northgate Mall (Seattle)
Northgate Mall is a shopping mall in the Northgate district of north urban Seattle, Washington. It is currently anchored by Bed Bath & Beyond, Toys "R" Us, JCPenney, Macy's and Nordstrom.-History:...
development. These neighborhoods are natural extensions of Maple Leaf
Maple Leaf, Seattle, Washington
Maple Leaf is a mostly residential neighborhood in Seattle, originally a rural suburb named Maple Leaf Addition to the Green Lake Tract or Green Lake Circle...
downstream. Neighborhood activists and North Seattle Community College (NSCC) have been promoting habitat restoration in support. NSCC grounds have a nationally-recognized native habitat, a pentimento
Pentimento
A pentimento is an alteration in a painting, evidenced by traces of previous work, showing that the artist has changed his mind as to the composition during the process of painting...
of restored native species on a palimpsest
Palimpsest
A palimpsest is a manuscript page from a scroll or book from which the text has been scraped off and which can be used again. The word "palimpsest" comes through Latin palimpsēstus from Ancient Greek παλίμψηστος originally compounded from πάλιν and ψάω literally meaning “scraped...
of former 1940s suburb, former dairy farm, former bog where native Dkhw’Duw’Absh harvested cranberries.
See also
- Thornton CreekThornton CreekThornton Creek is 18 miles of urban creeks and tributaries from southeast Shoreline through northeast Seattle to Lake Washington. The creek is the largest watershed in Seattle, draining a region of relatively dense biodiversity for an urban setting, home to frogs, newts, ducks, other birds, and...
- NorthgateNorthgate, Seattle, WashingtonNorthgate 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....
district of neighborhoods - Pilling's PondPilling's PondPilling's Pond is a privately owned, urban waterfowl reserve and breeding ground, located in the North Seattle Licton Springs neighborhood. It was created by lifetime resident Charles A. Pilling and has been the site of notable bird breeding feats, as well as acting as a roadside attraction since...
Further reading
- Licton Springs Neighborhood Community Council welcome
- "About NSCC", North Seattle Community College