Seward Park (Seattle)

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Seward Park contains the largest stand of old-growth forest in Seattle. Poison oak saved it from the logger's axe in the nineteenth century. Spotted in 1892 for its potential as a park, development did not begin until the 1920s. In 2001, it is a living museum of the ecosystems of Puget Sound as well as a recreation area and an artists' colony.

First People

The Bailey Peninsula juts into Lake Washington from the western shore between Seattle and Mercer Island. Native Americans of the Duwamish tribe lived along the edge of the lake making their livings from fishing, hunting, trapping, and digging roots. During the winter, they occupied a permanent settlement at Pritchard Island just to the south. Several large, cedar longhouses housed dozens of people from extended families. During summers, tribal members lived in shelters woven from cattails.

Early owners

The first U.S. Citizen to visit the area was probably Isaac Ebey (1818-1857) who paddled a canoe north through Lake Washington in 1850. He named the lake Geneva and went on to settle on Whidbey Island.

The peninsula was first called Graham's Peninsula after David Graham, an early settler and one of Seattle's first teachers. David's brother Walter bought the land it in 1863. Graham chose not to log the land "due to the presence of poison oak" (Sherwood). Graham sold out to Philip Ritz (d. 1889) between 1867 and 1872. Ritz was a Pennsylvania land speculator who never lived in Seattle.

In 1889, Ritz's widow sold Graham's Peninsula to William E. Bailey for $26,000. After that, the land was called Bailey's Peninsula. Bailey helped rebuild Seattle after The Great Fire of 1889 and he became owner of The Seattle Press-Times (later The Seattle Times) and a park commissioner. (Tradition held that a "Frenchman's Estate" was built there in the 1880s, but no evidence of the structure and no record of the builder has been uncovered.)

Plans for a park

In 1892, Seattle's first park superintendent E.O. Schwagerl proposed that the city sell Volunteer Park and buy Bailey Peninsula and the shoreline as a "southeast park." He thought Volunteer Park was "too high and dry." (Sherwood) It was not until the economic boom following the Klondike gold strike in 1897 that Seattle began to consider its park system again. In 1903, the city retained the services of John Charles Olmsted of Brookline, Massachusetts, to come up with a design. He produced a series of recommendations that included not just parks, but a boulevard system to connect them, and playgrounds. One recommendation was to acquire Bailey Peninsula. Sympathetic to the Olmsted plan, the Bailey family refrained from selling or developing the property.

In 1911, the city condemned the land and paid the Bailey family $322,000. The park was named after William H. Seward (1801-1872), Secretary of State under President Andrew Johnson (1808-1875), who arranged for the purchase of Alaska in 1867.

Development of the park waited. In 1917, Lake Washington's level dropped nine feet when the Lake Washington Ship Canal was opened. This exposed a meadow and increased the size of the isthmus that connected it to the shore.

In 1927, the city built a bathhouse and Ye Seward Park Inn concession opened. In 1935, A Greek-style amphitheater was built in 1953. The park supported a wide variety of wildlife native to the area. Mink lived there until 1941 when the last individuals were trapped. Deer migrated between the park and Mercer Island by swimming. The state Fish and Game Department captured the last three in 1953. Smaller species of birds, rodents, and reptiles continue to survive.

In 1971, the road around the peninsula was closed to auto traffic, eliminating racing, car washing, and other non-park uses.

Other features in the park include:

Pinoy Hill, picnic areas 2 and 3, named by local Filipinos. Pinoy is a nickname for Filipinos;
Japanese cherry trees, some of the 3,500 donated to Seattle in 1929 and 1931 by the Japanese Association of North America;
Taiko Gata stone lantern weighing eight tons, a gift from the city of Yokohama in 1931 in gratitude for Seattle's assistance after the earthquake of 1923;
Camp Fire Ring, arranged in the symbol of the Camp Fire Girls, in memory of Dorothy Block (1926-1961), park commissioner, children's advocate, and officer in the League of Women Voters;
Artists' studio and annex in the old Ye Seward Park Inn;
Fish rearing ponds constructed by U.S. Work Emergency Relief Administration in 1935;
Hiking trails;
Native plant garden;
Bicycle paths;
Swimming beach.

Sources:
Don Sherwood, "Seward Park - Graham Peninsula," Interpretive Essays on the History of Seattle Parks, Handwritten bound manuscript dated 1977, Seattle Room, Seattle Public Library, Seattle, Washington; Lucile B. McDonald, The Lake Washington Story, (Seattle: Superior Publishing Co., 1979), 23, 87, 88; "The Friends of Seward Park," (www.sewardpark.net).

By David Wilma, March 27, 2001

This file made possible by:
The SCHOONER Project:
The Hon. Jan Drago
Seattle City Council
Seattle Department of Neighborhoods

Map showing location of the Seward Park neighborhood of Seattle
Map by Chris Goodman, Courtesy HistoryLink

Bailey Peninsula with Columbia City, 1894
Courtesy Seattle Public Library

Bailey Peninsula and Mount Rainier from Mount Baker, ca. 1900
Courtesy MOHAI

Taiko Gata stone lantern, Seward Park, 1932
Courtesy Seattle Municipal Archives

Boaters at Seward Park, 1930
Courtesy Seattle Municipal Archives

Seward Park turnaround, 1935
Courtesy Seattle Municipal Archives

Fish Hatchery at Seward Park, 1935
Courtesy Seattle Municipal Archives