- 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 — 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…
- Woodland Park Zoo (historylink.org)
Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo, now regarded as one of the nation’s best, began with a small menagerie on Guy Phinney’s sprawling Woodland Park estate between Phinney Ridge and Green Lake. In 1899, the City of Seattle purchased the estate, and in 1903 John C. Olmsted (1852-1920) designed the first plan for its permanent “Zoological Gardens.” In 1932, construction of Aurora Avenue N (Highway 99) severed the zoo from “lower” Woodland Park. In 1976, neighborhood opposition to improvements authorized by the 1968 Forward Thrust bond election led to a new Long-Range Plan, later implemented by director David Hancocks. The plan’s natural “bioclimatic” exhibits revolutionized zoo design and won numerous international awards. King County voters approved additional zoo improvements in 1985, which were completed in 1999 under the guidance of director David L. Towne.
