- Seattle’s Phinney neighborhood lies mostly on a high ridge that rises from the western shore of Green Lake. It owes its name to Guy Phinney (1852-1893), a wealthy immigrant from Nova Scotia who developed a private estate that became Woodland Park (later Woodland Park Zoo). The neighborhood is largely a bedroom community that on the east spills off the spine of Phinney Ridge down to Green Lake’s shores, and on the west runs to the edge of Ballard at 8th Avenue NW. The ice age moraine runs north from N 50th Street and peters out somewhere south of N 80th Street, where Phinney and Greenwood community residents disagree over sovereign rights. Phinney residents also lay claim to Woodland Park Zoo and its four-footed residents, but this birthright is contested by the Wallingford and Green Lake neighborhoods.
- Seattle Neighborhoods: Haller Lake — Thumbnail History (historylink.org)
The Haller Lake community dates back to 1905, long before it was part of Seattle. Today it stands squeezed between Aurora Avenue N and the Interstate 5 freeway, and runs northward from N 110th Street to the current city limits at N 145th Street. Were it not for the physical and psychological presence of the freeway, the neighborhood would likely claim the Jackson Park golf course as its own. Similarly, the speeds and noises of Aurora Avenue N cut it off from its sibling, the Broadview/Bitter Lake neighborhood to the west. Nevertheless, with a 15-acre lake at its center, and with large lot sizes to remind visitors of its farmland past, the community retains a unique character among the many neighborhoods that constitute contemporary Seattle.