Seattle Parks and Recreation
Encyclopedia
Seattle Parks and Recreation (also known as the [Seattle] Department of Parks and Recreation or DPR) is the department of government of the city of Seattle
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...
, Washington, responsible for maintaining the city's parks, open space, and community centers.
The total area of the properties maintained by the department is over 6200 acres (25.1 km²), which makes up approximately 11% of the total area of Seattle. Of those 6200 acres (25.1 km²), 4600 acres (18.6 km²) are developed.
As of 2007, the department managed 450 parks, 485 buildings, and 22 miles (35.4 km) of boulevards. Facilities include 185 athletic fields, 122 children's playgrounds, four golf courses, 151 outdoor tennis courts and an indoor tennis center, 26 community centers, two outdoor and eight indoor swimming pools, as well as viewpoints, fishing piers, boat ramps, the Volunteer Park
Volunteer Park (Seattle)
Volunteer Park is a 48.3 acre park in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle, USA.-History:Volunteer Park was acquired by the city of Seattle for $2,000 in 1876 from J.M. Colman...
conservatory, the Washington Park Arboretum
Washington Park Arboretum
Washington Park is a public park in Seattle, Washington, USA, most of which is taken up by the Washington Park Arboretum, a joint project of the University of Washington, the Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation, and the nonprofit Arboretum Foundation. Washington Park also includes a...
, the Seattle Aquarium
Seattle Aquarium
The Seattle Aquarium is a public aquarium opened in 1977 and located on Pier 59 on the Elliott Bay waterfront in Seattle, Washington, USA. It is accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums .-History:...
, and the Woodland Park Zoo
Woodland Park Zoo
Woodland Park Zoo is a zoological garden around the Phinney Ridge neighborhood of Seattle, Washington. Occupying the western half of Woodland Park, the zoo began as a small menagerie on the estate of Guy C. Phinney, a Canadian-born lumber mill owner and real estate developer...
.
The department's 2007 operating budget was US$117 million. Its largest park is Discovery Park
Discovery Park (Seattle)
Discovery Park is a 534 acre park in the peninsular Magnolia neighborhood of Seattle, Washington. It is the city's largest public park and contains 11.81 miles of walking trails. United Indians of All Tribes' Daybreak Star Cultural Center is within the park's boundaries...
in Magnolia
Magnolia, Seattle, Washington
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...
, and its oldest park Denny Park
Denny Park (Seattle)
Denny Park is a park located in the South Lake Union neighborhood of Seattle, Washington. It occupies the block bounded by John Street and Denny Way on the north and south and Dexter and 9th Avenues N. on the west and east.- History :...
in South Lake Union
South Lake Union, Seattle, Washington
South Lake Union is a neighborhood in Seattle, Washington, so named because it is at the south tip of Lake Union.The official boundaries of the City of Seattle Urban Center are Denny Way on the south, beyond which is Denny Triangle; Interstate 5 on the east, beyond which is Capitol Hill; Aurora...
.
Seattle Parks and Recreation is run by a superintendent and advised by a volunteer Board of Park Commissioners.
Early Seattle parks
The Seattle Board of Park Commissioners was established in 1887 to oversee the city's first park, known at that time as Seattle Park. Originally the Seattle Cemetery, the site was donated in 1884 by Seattle pioneer David DennyDavid Denny
David Thomas Denny was a member of the Denny Party, who are generally collectively credited as the founders of Seattle, Washington, USA. Though he ultimately underwent bankruptcy, he was a significant contributor to the shape of the city...
; today it is Denny Park
Denny Park (Seattle)
Denny Park is a park located in the South Lake Union neighborhood of Seattle, Washington. It occupies the block bounded by John Street and Denny Way on the north and south and Dexter and 9th Avenues N. on the west and east.- History :...
. In 1892 the position of Park Supervisor was created, with E.O. Schwagerl being the first to hold the office. There was no budget at the time to purchase parks, but Schwagerl envisioned parks extending north along the Lake Washington
Lake Washington
Lake Washington is a large freshwater lake adjacent to the city of Seattle. It is the largest lake in King County and the second largest in the state of Washington, after Lake Chelan. It is bordered by the cities of Seattle on the west, Bellevue and Kirkland on the east, Renton on the south and...
shore from the Bailey Peninsula (today's Seward Park
Seward Park (Seattle)
Seward Park is a 300 acre park in Seattle, Washington, U.S.A., that occupies all of Bailey Peninsula, a forested peninsula off south Seattle that juts into Lake Washington....
) to Madison Park
Madison Park, Seattle, Washington
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 the intersection of Lake Washington Boulevard E...
with a boulevard along roughly the northern third of this, from Leschi
Leschi, Seattle, Washington
Leschi is a neighborhood located within the city of Seattle, Washington, USA. The neighborhood is named after Chief Leschi of the Nisqually tribe.- Location :...
to Madison Park.
It was no coincidence that Schwagerl would single out Leschi and Madison Parks. Both of these stood on the lakeshore at the end of trolley lines and were already privately developed as parks of a sort by the promoters of those lines. Leschi had a hotel, cottages, and footpaths leading through virgin forest, and John Cort built a six-story casino
Casino
In modern English, a casino is a facility which houses and accommodates certain types of gambling activities. Casinos are most commonly built near or combined with hotels, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships or other tourist attractions...
there in 1892, which was also an early, prominent vaudeville
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
venue. John J. McGilvra
John J. McGilvra
John J. McGilvra was a prominent lawyer and judge in late 19th century Seattle, Washington. Rev. H.K. Hines, D.D. in An Illustrated History of the State of Washington described him as "the oldest member of the legal profession in Seattle, Washington, both in years and practice" and "the father of...
's Madison Park had cottages and tent platforms, but also an amusement park, George K. Beede's 500-seat Madison Park Pavilion, a baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
park (eventually used by an early incarnation of the Northwest League
Northwest League
The Northwest League of Professional Baseball is a Class A-Short Season minor baseball league. The league is the descendant of the Western International League which ran as a class B league from 1937-1951 and class A from 1952-1954...
), excursion boats touring the lake, and eventually a track for horse racing
Horse racing
Horse racing is an equestrian sport that has a long history. Archaeological records indicate that horse racing occurred in ancient Babylon, Syria, and Egypt. Both chariot and mounted horse racing were events in the ancient Greek Olympics by 648 BC...
. Beede's and Cort's facilities both began by offering family entertainment, but eventually became beer halls. Madison Park was refurbished for the 1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition
Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition
The Alaska–Yukon–Pacific Exposition was a world's fair held in Seattle in 1909, publicizing the development of the Pacific Northwest.It was originally planned for 1907, to mark the 10th anniversary of the Klondike Gold Rush, but the organizers found out about the Jamestown Exposition being held...
(A-Y-P Exposition) as White City Park; Leschi Park, which had become less profitable, was purchased outright by the city at that time. Madison Park also eventually became less profitable (especially after Washington State adopted prohibition of alcohol in 1916) and was also sold to the city parks system. Madrona Park
Madrona Park (Seattle)
Madrona Park is a 31.2 acre park located in the Madrona neighborhood of Seattle, Washington, bisected by Lake Washington Boulevard. It lies on the western shore of Lake Washington and features picnic areas, a swimming beach with bathhouse, and parking area...
on Lake Washington and Alki Beach
Alki Point, Seattle, Washington
Alki Point is the westernmost point in the West Seattle district of Seattle, Washington; Alki is the peninsular neighborhood surrounding it. Jutting out into Puget Sound, Alki was the original white settlement in what was to become the city of Seattle...
, originally reachable from downtown Seattle only by water, have a similar history.
The rise of a parks system
Long before the city took over the commercial parks, in the 1890s, possibly inspired by Schwagerl's ideas, George F. CotterillGeorge F. Cotterill
George Fletcher Cotterill , born in Oxford, England, was an American civil servant and politician. His public career in Seattle and the state of Washington lasted over 40 years; his politics were generally aligned with Progressivism...
, assistant city engineer and chairman of the Paths Committee of the Queen City Good Roads Club, organized volunteers to build 25 miles (40.2 km) of bicycle
Bicycle
A bicycle, also known as a bike, pushbike or cycle, is a human-powered, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, having two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A person who rides a bicycle is called a cyclist, or bicyclist....
paths, mainly along the lake. In 1903, the park commissioners hired 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:...
to design a comprehensive plan for the city's parks. They uses Cotterill's bicycle paths as the basis of a city-wide plan for a system of boulevards and parks. The Olmsted plan had both populist and elitist elements. On the one hand, it intended to place a park or playground within half a mile (800 m) of every home in the city. On the other hand, their boulevards connected wealthy residential neighborhoods and bypassed the tawdrier popular amusement areas. For example, Lake Washington Boulevard bypassed the Leschi waterfront, leaving the lake shore and passing through the uplands. The Olmsted plan became a de facto plan for the city's development.
By 1917, nearly all of today's major Seattle parks already existed. Woodland
Woodland Park (Seattle)
Woodland Park is a 90.9 acre park in Seattle's Phinney Ridge and Green Lake neighborhoods that originated as the estate of Guy C. Phinney, lumber mill owner and real estate developer. Phinney died in 1893, and in 1902, the Olmsted Brothers firm of Boston was hired to design the city's parks,...
and Washington Parks
Washington Park Arboretum
Washington Park is a public park in Seattle, Washington, USA, most of which is taken up by the Washington Park Arboretum, a joint project of the University of Washington, the Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation, and the nonprofit Arboretum Foundation. Washington Park also includes a...
were purchased in 1900. From 1903, Woodland Park on 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...
was home to a zoo
Woodland Park Zoo
Woodland Park Zoo is a zoological garden around the Phinney Ridge neighborhood of Seattle, Washington. Occupying the western half of Woodland Park, the zoo began as a small menagerie on the estate of Guy C. Phinney, a Canadian-born lumber mill owner and real estate developer...
that had previously been privately operated at Leschi. Most of Washington Park would become, in 1941, an arboretum.
In 1904 the city charter was revised by initiative
Initiative
In political science, an initiative is a means by which a petition signed by a certain minimum number of registered voters can force a public vote...
. The new charter enhanced the power of the Park Board, brought it out from under control of the Seattle City Council
Seattle City Council
The Seattle City Council is committed to ensuring that Seattle, Washington, is safe, livable and sustainable. Nine Councilmembers are elected to four-year terms in nonpartisan elections and represent the entire city, elected by all Seattle voters....
, gave it control not only over parks but over playgrounds, parkways, and boulevards, and granted it a tax base of its own. In addition, over the next eight years, voters approved $4 million in bond issues for the purchase of parklands. Seward Park (Bailey Peninsula) and Ravenna Park
Ravenna Park (Seattle)
Ravenna Park and Cowen Park comprise a single contiguous recreation and green space in the Ravenna neighborhood of Seattle, Washington in the United States...
north of the University District
University District, Seattle, Washington
The University District is a neighborhood in Seattle, Washington, so named because the main campus of the University of Washington 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...
were obtained before the 1909 A-Y-P Exposition using the right of eminent domain
Eminent domain
Eminent domain , compulsory purchase , resumption/compulsory acquisition , or expropriation is an action of the state to seize a citizen's private property, expropriate property, or seize a citizen's rights in property with due monetary compensation, but without the owner's consent...
.
Further lakeshore lands were obtained from the state in 1913 with assistance from Hiram Chittenden of the Port of Seattle
Port of Seattle
The Port of Seattle is a port district that runs Seattle's seaport and airport. Its creation was approved by the voters of King County, Washington, on September 5, 1911, authorized by the Port District Act. It is run by a five-member commission. The commissioners' terms run four years...
. The resulting construction and landscaping projects made the Park Board a significant employer, especially during times when the economy slackened.
Continued development of the system
In February 1968, as part of the Forward ThrustForward Thrust
The Forward Thrust ballot initiatives were a series of bond propositions put to the voters of King County, Washington in 1968 and 1970, designed by a group called the Forward Thrust Committee...
program, Seattle passed a $118 million dollar bond issue in support of the Department of Parks and Recreation. At the time, it was the largest parks and recreation bond issue ever passed in the United States.
External links
- Donald N. Sherwood et al., Sherwood Park History Files, Seattle Parks and Recreation.