Colman Park is a

park A park is an area of natural, semi-natural or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and recreation or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. Urban parks are urban green space, green spaces set aside for recreation inside t ...

in the

Mount Baker Mount Baker (Lummi: '; nok, Kw’eq Smaenit or '), also known as Koma Kulshan or simply Kulshan, is a active glacier-covered andesitic stratovolcano in the Cascade Volcanic Arc and the North Cascades of Washington in the United States. Mount ...

neighborhood A neighbourhood (British English, Irish English, Australian English and Canadian English) or neighborhood (American English; see spelling differences) is a geographically localised community within a larger city, town, suburb or rural area, ...

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

, located just south of the

Lacey V. Murrow Memorial Bridge The Lacey V. Murrow Memorial Bridge is a floating bridge in the Seattle metropolitan area of the U.S. state of Washington. It is one of the Interstate 90 floating bridges that carries the eastbound lanes of Interstate 90 across Lake Washington f ...

(

Interstate 90 Interstate 90 (I-90) is an east–west transcontinental freeway and the longest Interstate Highway in the United States at . It begins in Seattle, Washington, and travels through the Pacific Northwest, Mountain West, Great Plains, Midwest, and ...

) along

Lake Washington Lake Washington is a large freshwater lake adjacent to the city of Seattle. It is the largest lake in King County and the second largest natural lake in the state of Washington, after Lake Chelan. It borders the cities of Seattle on the west, ...

and inland to 31st Avenue S. It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 2020, alongside the adjacent Mount Baker Park.

History

In 1881 the

Town Council A town council, city council or municipal council is a form of local government for small municipalities. Usage of the term varies under different jurisdictions. Republic of Ireland Town Councils in the Republic of Ireland were the second ti ...

authorized the first "municipal" water company which took over a maze of privately owned systems and was authorized to charge for water service. Appropriately named " The Spring Hill Water Co.", the needs of a growing town were served by building a pumping plant "all the way over here" on Lake Washington; the year was 1886 and the pump was steam operated. Failure of the main pump brought the designing engineers from the East, who were unable to find the difficulty. A Seattle engineer, James M. Colman, went to work and 36 hours (non-stop) later he had the pump back in service. This pump station worked "to heartbreak" during the Great Fire of Seattle in 1889. In 1907, the Park Board was given jurisdiction of the plant site plus part of the pipeline right-of-way up the hill. Following the route chosen by the

Olmsted Brothers The Olmsted Brothers company was a landscape architectural firm in the United States, established in 1898 by brothers John Charles Olmsted (1852–1920) and Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. (1870–1957), sons of the landscape architect Frederick Law ...

, Frink Boulevard was extended southward curving down the slope, joining

Lake Washington Boulevard Lake Washington Boulevard is a scenic, approximately , road through Seattle, Washington, that hugs Lake Washington for much of the route. There are views of the lake, small sections of rainforest, meadows, and views of the Cascade mountains. At ...

, coming up from the south along the lakeshore. Additional gifts plus the purchase of property along the north side widened the park, and in 1909 the State granted the shorelands for park purposes. In 1910 the James M. Colman Estate filed a plat in which the "head" of the slope was deeded for park purposes and the "strip" from 31st down to the lake was named to the memory of Mr. Colman In August 2002,

Joseph Jerome Farris Joseph Jerome Farris (March 4, 1930 – July 23, 2020) was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Education and career Born in Birmingham, Alabama, Farris received a Bachelor of Science degree f ...

, a Senior Judge on the

United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (in case citations, 9th Cir.) is the U.S. federal court of appeals that has appellate jurisdiction over the U.S. district courts in the following federal judicial districts: * District ...

, had 120 mature

bigleaf maple ''Acer macrophyllum'', the bigleaf maple or Oregon maple, is a large deciduous tree in the genus '' Acer''. It is native to western North America, mostly near the Pacific coast, from southernmost Alaska to southern California. Some stands are al ...

and indigenous cherry trees in Colman Park cut down to improve the view of

from his house. Some of the trees were more than forty years old and over fifty-five feet tall.

Norm Maleng Norman "Kim" Maleng (September 17, 1938 – May 24, 2007) was an American attorney and politician who served as the King County Prosecuting Attorney for 28 years. He was also an architect of Washington's Sentencing Reform Act. Early life a ...

, the

King County Prosecuting Attorney The King County Prosecuting Attorney is a non-partisan elected official in King County, Washington. The Prosecuting Attorney leads the King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office, and prosecutes all felonies (as well as all misdemeanors in unincorpo ...

, declined to file felony malicious

mischief Mischief or malicious mischief is the name for a criminal offenses that is defined differently in different legal jurisdictions. While the wrongful acts will often involve what is popularly described as vandalism, there can be a legal differenti ...

charges. The

Seattle City Attorney The Seattle City Attorney is a non-partisan elected official in Seattle, Washington whose job is to "prosecute people for misdemeanor offenses, defend the city against lawsuits, and gives legal advice to the city". Since 2022, the position has bee ...

fined Judge Farris $500,000. After Judge Farris did not pay the fine on time the city placed a lien on his 8,000 square-foot

house. The federal judge maintained the trees were cut down due to a miscommunication with his Vietnamese gardener, which the gardener denied. A jury heard testimony from the gardener when Judge Farris sued his homeowner's insurer for coverage of the fine. Believing the gardener, the jury found against Judge Farris. Judge Farris finally paid the full fine amount, now with interest $618,000, in May 2006.

References

External links

ColmanPark.orgParks Department page on Colman Park
{{Protected areas of Seattle Parks in Seattle 1910 establishments in Washington (state)