As part of Seattle's Olmsted legacy Seward Park is an example of a planning philosophy that recognized the need to preserve remnants of the past while looking to the future. As early as 1892, the city's first park superintendent, E.O. Schwagerl, recommended acquiring the site for public use. Subsequently, the Olmsted Brothers Comprehensive System of Parks and Parkways plan of 1903 noted the potential of the small peninsula along the western shores of Lake Washington.

The plan also suggested acquisition of property along the entire lakefront as far south as Brighton Beach for a parkway to connect the various parks and provide protection of lakeside access and views. In 1905, much of the shoreline property was in city hands, but it wasn't until 1911 that the city acquired the Bailey Peninsula. Besides access to beaches and public moorage for boats, the peninsula was recognized as a remnant of the old-growth forests that were disappearing all over the Puget Sound.

The first proposal on the Olmsted Brothers report suggested, "Bailey Peninsula, southeast of the city, forms the most available large tract of land that is uniformly and beautifully covered with woods, and should be secured eventually, and, of course before the woods are injured." (Sherwood) A plank road had been built from Pioneer Square to Columbia City and rapid development was already moving toward the lakeshore. Today Seward Park hosts the largest patch of old-growth forest remaining in the Seattle urban area. The only other is a 50-acre sliver of forest primeval in Schmitz Park, West Seattle.

Natural History

Seward Park Peninsula is a mass of bedrock that predates the ice age and withstood the Second Continental Glacier (13,000 years ago) that created Lake Washington. The peninsula was a seasonal island connected by marshes that provided a natural bridge to dry land in the rainless summer, which disappeared during the wet winters. The Lake Washington Ship Canal, completed in 1917, lowered the water level by 9 feet and filled the marshes and created a meadow and easy year-round access on the once-seasonal isthmus.

Another result of the lower water level was a loss of numerous old-growth Douglas firs, due to insufficient groundwater levels. In addition to the forest's predominant Douglas fir canopy, other large trees include: Sitka spruce, western hemlock, western red cedar, big leaf maple and the largest stand of madronas in Seattle. Typical northwest natives comprise the understory. These include: salal, Oregon grape, huckleberry, a variety of ferns, and poison oak.

Seward Park's rare poison oak is responsible for saving the peninsula from logging. Because the peninsula consists of bedrock, rather than glacial till, the south face of Pinoy Hill provides the unique dry, rocky conditions preferred by the species - conditions rare in areas north of the Columbia River. Troublesome invasives include English ivy, Himalayan blackberry, canary reed grass, and purple loosetrife. A group called IVY OUT (Ivy Off Urban Trees) sponsors a volunteer program for ivy removal in the park.

As late as 1952, deer could be seen swimming from Mercer Island to feed at a WPA-era shelter on the northeast side of the park. The former shelter no longer hosts deer, driven away by increased motor traffic and park usage. Mink once roamed the peninsula as well, but they were trapped and removed by the Game Warden in 1941 because they dined too hungrily upon stock in the fish hatchery--another WPA-era park addition.

Animals still found in Seward park include raccoon, Douglas squirrel, mountain beaver, white footed mouse, a wide variety of waterfowl, eagles, owls, sparrows, finches, blackbirds, woodpeckers, hummingbirds and more. A small group of exotic parakeets has inhabited the park since sometime in the mid-1990's. Despite the loss of habitat for large animals such as deer, the park continues to provide essential habitat for numerous species-an especially important function provided by urban parks.

The Duwamish Indians may have fished and hunted on the peninsula. Typically hunters or fishermen set up temporary campsites, but there are no archeological remains or indications of any settlements there.

The former Graham Peninsula became known as Bailey Peninsula after its purchase by William E. Bailey in 1890. When the city finally purchased it in 1911, the new park was named for William H. Seward, whose influence as Secretary of State had secured the purchase of Alaska from the Soviet Union in 1867.

In 1912, the Olmsted Brothers developed a Master Plan for Seward Park. Their plan called for wharves for both private and commercial boats and ferries, picnic, beach, bathing and boating facilities, playgrounds, tennis courts and a number of summer cottages. They proposed the retention of the old-growth forest and road improvements that were sensitive to the natural features and the shoreline.

While a path system was developed in 1913, funding issues delayed further improvements. It wasn't until 1917 that additional development created the swimming beach along the north side of the access road created by the filling of the marshes. Sporadic funding and changes in values over time meant that the Olmsted plan was never realized.

By 1930, automotive enthusiasts initiated slow development of a loop drive, but it followed along the shore, rather than along the hilly ridges above, as the Olmsteds had suggested. In 1927, "Ye Seward Park Inn," was built as a concessions stand. The toilets by the bathing beach were also built, but not fully completed as a bathhouse until 1940, as part of WPA improvements. In 1970, the bathhouse was converted for use as an art studio and still functions as such today. "Ye Old Seward Park Inn," formerly the caretakers quarters and now referred to as the Annex Building, currently serves as a meeting center for a teen environmental group and for nature programs.

Significant changes were made as part of the Federal Work Emergency Relief Administration/Works Progress Administration projects during the Depression. These included not only the bathhouse completion and the deer shelter, but a major project that resulted in the clearing of some of the old-growth forest for the development of a 20-acre fish hatchery in 1935. Local sportsmen gained political support for the development. Twenty-one ponds served to rear trophy-size trout to be released for gaming purposes, along with the annual release of one-pounders. The eventual realization of the negative ecological impacts upon the lake ecology of such practices forestalled the hopes of the fishermen in creating a "fishermen's paradise." The hatchery served as an educational research lab under the University of Washington's Department of Fisheries from 1978 until 1997, and then was closed with an undetermined future.

More forest was cleared in 1953 for the development of an outdoor amphitheatre and parking. Situated with a view to the south of Mount Rainier, the 775-seat theater with an extensive lawn-seating area served as host to elaborate orchestral events and dance productions. Because of the popularity of these events and increased traffic, the programs were forced to go low-key in the 1960s. Today it continues to host small programs such as "Shakespeare in the Park" productions.

The legacy of the Camp Fire Girls' use of the park throughout the years is represented by a camp fire ring constructed in the shape of the organizations symbol as a memorial to Dorothy Block for her service to the organization, only one among many of her civic involvements. Several gifts serve as a legacy to honor Japanese relations with the city. These include some of the 3,500 cherry trees from Japan presented to the city in 1929 by the Japanese Association of North America. At the entrance to the park is a garden that provides a setting for the 8-ton stone lantern, Taiko Gata, presented in 1931 by the city of Yokohoma for assistance given after the 1923 earthquake.

Since 1971, the shoreline loop has been closed to auto traffic and serves as a 2.4-mile bike and pedestrian route. Other hiking trails take visitors through the old-growth forest and atop ridgelines along Pinoy Hill. Visitors can often be seen with a pair of binoculars held to their face, as the park is a popular birding spot. Grade-school students can also be found en masse as schools expand their environmental programs to include field trips focusing on issues of watershed and habitat-an understanding crucial to the future of our urban policy decisions. A native plant garden near the Annex Building provides additional opportunities for interpretive learning. Such environmental learning opportunities are the guiding force behind future development of Seward Park.

Last year, the Pro Parks Levy set aside over $600,000 in funds for a joint project with the National Audubon Society to create an environmental learning center in the former Annex building. Dependent upon additional funding from the Audubon Society and community volunteers, opportunities to explore the nature of human-animal relations will guide the next generation in planning for our future. Construction is scheduled to begin in spring of this year (2003).

Nature and Culture in Urban Parks: Coming Full Circle

The history of the development of Seward Park has often been affected not only by cultural values and attitudes toward the environment, but also by political and economic climates. The poison oak that saved the peninsula from logging as well as the loss of mink from misguided attempts to sway the ecological balance of the lake for sporting purposes are reminders of the complexities of human interventions on the landscape.

The changing nature of the environment, from both an ecological and cultural perspective, is an important consideration when reviewing the historic past and planning for the future. Urban parks, as both cultural and ecological landscapes, are places where these dynamic changes and their significance to our daily lives are most readily perceived. After all, the "nature," of the urban park, is an idealized form of the wilderness, even if the trees are hundreds of years old.

The Olmsteds understood that each landscape had its own natural character. They sought to "enhance" the human experience of these landscapes by developing them in a way that was sensitive to its unique function in an ecological mosaic.

For more information about Seward Park and park project updates go to the Parks Department website. For more information about the natural history, birds and plants and volunteer opportunities, visit the Friends of Seward Park website. For historic photos of the park, visit the Seattle Municipal Archives website . For a detailed history of Seward Park and all of Seattle's parks, see Don Sherwood's collection of essays Data on the History of Seattle Park Systems available at the History Reference Desk at the Seattle Central Library.

View last month's Preservation & Environment article

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