Seattle Neighborhoods: Blue Ridge — Thumbnail History (historylink.org)
In 1925, when the timberland holdings of the Puget Mill Company were sold to an eastern lumber company, the Blue Ridge community in Seattle’s northwest corner became a possibility. William E. Boeing (1881-1956), lumberman, mining entrepreneur, and airplane builder, bought up most of the company’s land overlooking Puget Sound north of the city limits to Richmond Beach. Soon the Douglas fir and cedar stands would be sacrificed for the development of the exclusive communities of Innis Arden and Blue Ridge. Today (2001), 450 homes sit on a 200-acre cul-de-sac that abuts Carkeek Park, whose western facing slopes offer spectacular views of the Puget Sound area. This acreage, bounded on the east by 12th Avenue NW and on the south by NW 100th and NW 105th streets, constitutes the upscale, covenanted community of Blue Ridge.Seattle Neighborhoods: Greenwood — Thumbnail History (historylink.org)
The bog once known as Woodland has become, over the past century, Seattle’s Greenwood neighborhood. Greenwood extends beyond the former city limits at N 85th Street to Holman Road NW and angles into N 100th Street. The community’s western boundary at 8th Avenue NW marked the city limits when the neighborhood took its name, and Aurora Avenue N runs along its eastern edge. Only the southern boundary, which divides Greenwood from the Phinney Ridge neighborhood, floats, depending upon who is speaking. Most people agree that N 80th Street, the former terminus of the electric trolley Phinney line, should serve as the logical white chalk line. Greenwood began as a bog and a cemetery, but has become a vibrant neighborhood known for its antiques shops and art walk.Shoreline — Thumbnail History (historylink.org)
The City of Shoreline is one of Seattle’s closest suburbs. Located immediately north of Seattle’s city limits, the area was settled first by homesteaders and soon after by vacationers. Over time a community formed, and although Seattle’s boundaries have pushed farther north, Shoreline has preserved its autonomy and, in the 1990s, incorporated as a city in its own right.- The Broadview neighborhood bordering Puget Sound in northwest Seattle takes its name from the expansive views of Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains that can be seen from its western slopes. The neighborhood reaches north from N 105th Street to the city limits at N 145th Street, and is bounded on the east by Aurora Avenue N. It is home to Carkeek Park, Evergreen Park Cemetery, the Ida Culver Retirement Home, and Bitter Lake, which beckoned many of the first settlers to the area. It drew its identity from an amusement park called Playland that operated on the south shore of Bitter Lake for 30 years, beginning in 1930. The Seattle-Everett Interurban trolley line ran through the heart of the neighborhood, bringing people and goods to the area and hastening its development. Broadview, once forestland and rural farmland, today is a suburban home to 13,000 residents.
- Seattle — Thumbnail History (historylink.org)
Seattle is the largest city in Washington state and its economic capital. Settled in 1851, its deep harbor and acquisition of Puget Sound’s first steam-powered sawmill quickly established it as a center of trade and industry. It gained the Territorial University (now University of Washington) in 1861, but was snubbed by the Northern Pacific Railroad in 1874 when it picked Tacoma as its western terminus. Despite this, the town prospered thanks to independent railroad development fueled by local coal deposits…