Yesler Terrace, Seattle, Washington
Encyclopedia
Seattle Housing Authority
The Seattle Housing Authority is the department of government of the city of Seattle, Washington, responsible for public housing for low-income, elderly, and disabled residents. SHA serves more than 25,500 people, just under a third of whom are children, through around 5,200 HUD units, 1,000 units...
development in 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 was, at the time of its completion in 1941, that state's first public housing development and the first racially integrated
Racial integration
Racial integration, or simply integration includes desegregation . In addition to desegregation, integration includes goals such as leveling barriers to association, creating equal opportunity regardless of race, and the development of a culture that draws on diverse traditions, rather than merely...
public housing development in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. It occupies much of the area formerly known as Yesler Hill, Yesler's Hill, or Profanity Hill. , it is administered by the Seattle Housing Authority
Seattle Housing Authority
The Seattle Housing Authority is the department of government of the city of Seattle, Washington, responsible for public housing for low-income, elderly, and disabled residents. SHA serves more than 25,500 people, just under a third of whom are children, through around 5,200 HUD units, 1,000 units...
, and is Seattle's only remaining large public housing development that has not been converted into a mixed-income neighborhood.
Yesler Terrace is located on the southernmost part of First Hill
First Hill, Seattle, Washington
First Hill is a neighborhood in Seattle, Washington, named for the hill on which it is located. The hill, in turn, is so named for being the first hill one encounters traveling east from downtown Seattle toward Lake Washington....
, along Yesler Way immediately east of downtown Seattle. Uphill across Interstate 5
Interstate 5
Interstate 5 is the main Interstate Highway on the West Coast of the United States, running largely parallel to the Pacific Ocean coastline from Canada to Mexico . It serves some of the largest cities on the U.S...
from Pioneer Square
Pioneer Square, Seattle, Washington
Pioneer Square is a neighborhood in the southwest corner of Downtown Seattle, Washington, USA. It was once the heart of the city: Seattle's founders settled there in 1852, following a brief six-month settlement at Alki Point on the far side of Elliott Bay. The early structures in the neighborhood...
and the International District
International District, Seattle, Washington
The Chinatown-International District of Seattle, Washington is an ethnic enclave neighborhood and is the center of Seattle's Asian American community. The neighborhood is multiethnic, consisting mainly of people who are of Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino ethnicity...
, it consists of several hundred two-story rowhouses and a small number of community buildings. Unlike most public housing developments, residents have their own private yards.
The name derives ultimately from Henry Yesler
Henry Yesler
Henry L. Yesler was an entrepreneur considered to be Seattle, Washington's first economic father and first millionaire. He arrived in Seattle in 1852 and built a steam-powered sawmill, which provided numerous jobs for those early settlers and Duwamish tribe members...
, pioneer mill owner. Yesler Way was originally the skid road on which logs were skidded down to the mill. The southern part of the hill came to be known as Yesler's Hill, Yesler Hill, or Profanity Hill. These names referred roughly to the part of First Hill south of the old King County Courthouse at 8th Avenue and Terrace Street. Razed in 1931, the courthouse site was roughly the western portion of the present-day Harborview Medical Center
Harborview Medical Center
Harborview Medical Center, located on Seattle's First Hill, is a public hospital in King County, Washington and is managed by UW Medicine.-Overview:...
. The name "Profanity Hill" originally referred to the cursing of the attorneys and litigants at having to climb so steep a grade, but continued to be associated with the slum neighborhood to the south where Yesler Terrace is now situated.
As of 2005, there are 1,167 residents. An estimated 40% of households are Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
n or Asian American
Asian American
Asian Americans are Americans of Asian descent. The U.S. Census Bureau definition of Asians as "Asian” refers to a person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent, including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan,...
, 38% are Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
n or African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
, 11% are White
White people
White people is a term which usually refers to human beings characterized, at least in part, by the light pigmentation of their skin...
, and 3% Native American.
Plans are currently afoot to convert Yesler Terrace, like other Seattle public housing developments, to mixed-income use. Residents have been organizing to demand that any plan for redevelopment include the opportunity for all residents who wish to remain to do so. They have also circulated a petition opposing any plan that would reduce the number of units available to the poorest residents.
External links
- Yesler Terrace, Seattle Housing Authority. Includes links to pages relevant to the current planning process.