- Madison Valley is a Seattle neighborhood located just east of Capitol Hill and the Central Area, south of Madison Park and north of Madrona. A new-old community, it is best located at the small business district near Madison Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Way. According to community leaders, its boundaries are Madison on the north, Lake Washington Boulevard and Dorffel Drive on the east, 23rd Avenue E on the west, and Denny Way to the south. The community, at one time a deteriorating hollow that affluent Madison Park and Denny-Blaine residents hurriedly drove by, has changed. Today the neighborhood is festooned with small parks, two greenbelts, a pea patch, three schools, craftsman-style houses, and a cozy upgraded business district that boasts several of Seattle’s best neighborhood restaurants.
- 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…