Seward Park (Seattle)

Seward Park is a 300 acre (120 ha) park in Seattle, Washington that occupies all of Bailey Peninsula, a forested peninsula off south Seattle that juts into Lake Washington.

One approaches the park from the North by Lake Washington Boulevard S, from the South by Seward Park Avenue S., or from the West by S Orcas Street. The main parking lot and a tennis court are located in the southwest corner. The most commonly used trail is a car-free loop around the park. It is flat and 2.4 miles long ( 3.8 km). Others lead all over the interior, including a few car-accessible roads that lead to amenities including an amphitheater and picnic area. Seward Park features numerous small beaches, the largest one on its southwest side, as well as a playground and an arts center.

The 300 acres (121 ha) of Seward Park have about a 120 acre (48.6 ha) surviving remnant of old growth forest, providing a glimpse of what some of the lake shore looked like before the city of Seattle. With trees older than 250 years and many less than 200, the Seward Park forest is relatively young (the forests of Seattle before the city was fully mature, were up through 1,000–2,000 years old). [(1) Sherwood
(2) Talbert (2006-05-01, "Magnificent")]

History

The area has been inhabited since the end of the last glacial period (c. 8,000 B.C.E.—10,000 years ago). The People of the Large Lake ("Xacuab" or "hah-chu-AHBSH", today the Duwamish tribe) had resource sites; villages were nearby. The Duwamish called Bailey Peninsula "Noses" (Lushootseed: squbáqst). Before the completion of the Lake Washington Ship Canal in 1916 lowered the level of Lake Washington, the peninsula was an island with points, or "noses", at the north and south ends. [cite book |last= Thrush |first= Coll |title= Native Seattle: Histories from the Crossing-Over Place |year= 2007 |publisher= University of Washington Press |isbn= 0-295-98700-6 |pages= p. 247]

The purchase of the park was suggested as early as 1892, but was sidelined due to its distance from what was then the city. However, the Olmsted Brothers assimilated it into its plan for Seattle parks, and the city of Seattle bought Bailey Peninsula in 1911 for $322,000, and named the park after William H. Seward, former United States Secretary of State, of Alaska Purchase fame.

At the entrance to the park, in a wooded island filled with flowers between the circular entrance and exit road, there is a little-known monument: a "taiko-gata" stone lantern, a gift of friendship from the City of Yokohama, Japan, to the City of Seattle, given in 1930 in gratitude to Seattle's assistance to Yokohama after the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923.

Since at least early July, 2004, the park has become a home to wild rabbits and a growing colony of feral Peruvian conures (parrots, either the Chapman's mitred or the scarlet-fronted), who were released into the wild by their owners (or some escaped). They fly between Seward Park and Maple Leaf in northeast Seattle. [(1) cite web
last =
first =
date =
year =2005
month =
url =http://birdweb.org/birdweb/family_details.aspx?sci_name=Psittacidae
title ="Parrots"
publisher =BirdWeb, Seattle Audubon Society
accessdate =2006-04-21
(2) Post [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Seward_Park_%28Seattle%29&oldid=4522938 02:26, 9 July 2004 (UTC)] ] The park is also home to two nesting pairs of bald eagles, who can frequently be seen flying over Lake Washington and diving to the water's surface to catch fish and ducks.

Renovation on the Tudor-style house at the entrance to Seward Park—originally the Seward Park Inn, a Seattle city landmark—was completed early in 2008 and is now the Seward Park Environmental & Audubon Center. Programming at the Center and in the park includes school, youth, community, arts in the environment, and special events. The Center also includes exhibits, an extensive library, a laboratory, and a small gift shop.

Notes and references

Bibliography

* cite web
last =
first =
coauthors =
date =not recorded, 2006-08-10
year =
month =
url =http://www.cityofseattle.net/parks/parkspaces/sewardpark.htm
title ="Seward Park"
work =
publisher =Seattle Parks and Recreation
accessdate =not recorded, 2006-08-21
* cite web
last =
first =
coauthors =
date =2003-06-30
year =
month =
url =http://www.cityofseattle.net/parks/parkspaces/SewardPark/history.htm
title ="Seward Park History"
work =
publisher =Seattle Parks and Recreation
accessdate =not recorded, 2006-08-21
*
*
*

Further reading

* [http://www.sewardpark.org Friends of Seward Park]
* [http://www.cityofseattle.net/parks/parkspaces/sewardpark.htm "Seward Park"] , Seattle Parks and Recreation
* [http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/neighbors/sewardpark/ Large Jewish population calls diverse community home]