Ravenna is a neighborhood in northeastern
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 named after
Ravenna
Ravenna ( , , also ; rgn, Ravèna) is the capital city of the Province of Ravenna, in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy. It was the capital city of the Western Roman Empire from 408 until its collapse in 476. It then served as the cap ...
, Italy. Though Ravenna is considered a residential neighborhood, it also is home to several businesses, many of which are located in the
University Village University Village may mean:
* University Village, Albany, California
*University Village, Chicago, Illinois
*University Village, Grand Forks, North Dakota
* University Village, New York
* University Village, Riverside, California
*University Villa ...
, a shopping mall.
Ravenna Park
Ravenna Park and Cowen Park comprise a single contiguous recreation and green space in the Ravenna neighborhood of Seattle, Washington in the United States. These public parks encompass the ravine with a maximum depth of through which Ravenna Cr ...
, located near University Village and the walking or biking route connecting
Green Lake to
Burke–Gilman Trail
The Burke–Gilman Trail is a rail trail in King County, Washington. The multi-use recreational trail is part of the King County Regional Trail System and occupies an abandoned Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railway (SLS&E) corridor.
A porti ...
, is located within the neighborhood.
Ravenna and Ravenna-Bryant
What is now Ravenna has been inhabited since the end of the last
glacial period
A glacial period (alternatively glacial or glaciation) is an interval of time (thousands of years) within an ice age that is marked by colder temperatures and glacier advances. Interglacials, on the other hand, are periods of warmer climate betw ...
(c. 8000 BCE–10,000 years ago). The Native American
Duwamish Duwamish may refer to:
* Duwamish tribe, a Native American tribe in Washington state
* Duwamish River, in Washington state
* ''Duwamish'' (fireboat)
See also
* Elliott Bay
Elliott Bay is a part of the Central Basin region of Puget Sound. It is ...
(before contact, the ''D
khw’Duw’Absh'', "the People of the Inside") tribe of the
Lushootseed (Skagit-Nisqually) Coast Salish
The Coast Salish is a group of ethnically and linguistically related Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast, living in the Canadian province of British Columbia and the U.S. states of Washington and Oregon. They speak one of the Coas ...
nations had the prominent village of ''SWAH-tsoo-gweel'' ("portage") on then-adjacent
Union Bay, and what is now Ravenna was their backyard before the arrival of
White
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...
settlers. The
Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railway was built c. 1886 along what is now the
Burke-Gilman Trail, following what was the shoreline past where the UW power plant and University Village are today. In 1890 mining and real estate magnate William Wirt Beck (1851-1944) filed the first plat on the 400 acres of land he owned covering most of the modern-day neighborhood, with the intention of creating an ideal community where his own home was one of the first to be built (and still stands several blocks East of the park). That same year he established the Seattle Female College, with classes held in Beck's home. Placement of churches and other civic structures would be modeled after the townsite's namesake,
Ravenna, Italy
Ravenna ( , , also ; rgn, Ravèna) is the capital city of the Province of Ravenna, in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy. It was the capital city of the Western Roman Empire from 408 until its collapse in 476. It then served as the cap ...
. King County's first grist mill was also established at Ravenna in 1890 by the Ravenna Flouring Mill Company who built their mill along the railroad grade. 70 acres comprising old growth timber protected by a ravine were preserved by Beck for use as a park that would later become Ravenna Park. In 1891, a streetcar line followed 14th Avenue NE (what is now University Way NE, as illustrated in the Cowen's University Park Addition Seattle annex map below on this page), then followed near the southern boundary of what is now Ravenna Park, where the narrow right-of-way remains clearly visible beside the park. Ravenna Boulevard was built in 1903 as a small part of 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 ...
' grand plan for Seattle streets and parks.
[
]
Ravenna incorporated as an independent town in 1906, which permitted Seattle to
annex
Annex or Annexe refers to a building joined to or associated with a main building, providing additional space or accommodations.
It may also refer to:
Places
* The Annex, a neighbourhood in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada
* The Annex (New H ...
it in 1907.
[Wilma (2001-08-20, Essay 3502)] The original boundary of the Town of Ravenna when it was annexed extended from 15th Avenue NE eastward to 20th Avenue NE (above 65th Street NE) and eastward to 30th Ave NE (south of 65th Street NE), bounded on the south by 55th Street. Ravenna south of the Burke-Gilman Trail is filled land from dump sites at 26th Avenue, filling the drained Union Bay Marsh and much of Union Bay. University Village (1956) was built on the southernmost reclaimed land in Ravenna.
Ravenna is bounded on the west by 15th and 20th Avenues NE, beyond which lies the
Roosevelt
Roosevelt may refer to:
*Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919), 26th U.S. president
* Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945), 32nd U.S. president
Businesses and organisations
* Roosevelt Hotel (disambiguation)
* Roosevelt & Son, a merchant bank
* Rooseve ...
neighborhood; on the north by NE 75th and 85th Streets, beyond which lie
Maple Leaf
The maple leaf is the characteristic leaf of the maple tree. It is the most widely recognized national symbol of Canada.
History of use in Canada
By the early 1700s, the maple leaf had been adopted as an emblem by the French Canadians along the ...
and
Wedgwood
Wedgwood is an English fine china, porcelain and luxury accessories manufacturer that was founded on 1 May 1759 by the potter and entrepreneur Josiah Wedgwood and was first incorporated in 1895 as Josiah Wedgwood and Sons Ltd. It was rapid ...
; on the east by 35th and 25th Avenues NE, beyond which lie
View Ridge,
Windermere
Windermere (sometimes tautology (language), tautologically called Windermere Lake to distinguish it from the nearby town of Windermere, Cumbria (town), Windermere) is the largest natural lake in England. More than 11 miles (18 km) in leng ...
and
Laurelhurst;
[
] and on the south by NE Ravenna Boulevard, and NE Blakeley or NE 45th Streets, beyond which lie the
University District and sometimes University Village (boundaries are informal). University Village and
Calvary Cemetery are in south Ravenna.
The adjacent
Bryant neighborhood, or Ravenna-Bryant, extends the neighborhood east to 45th Avenue NE, south of NE 75th Street and north of Sand Point Way NE.
The principal arterial is 25th Avenue NE; minor arterials are 15th and 35th Avenues NE, and NE 65th Street; 40th Avenue NE and NE 55th Street are collector arterials. Besides the eponymous boulevard, arguably its most well-known street is Candy Cane Lane. On the length of Park Road (one block and a little
roundabout
A roundabout is a type of circular intersection or junction in which road traffic is permitted to flow in one direction around a central island, and priority is typically given to traffic already in the junction.''The New Shorter Oxford En ...
) residents have been creating an elaborate Christmas display since 1951, bringing bumper-to-bumper traffic to the boulevard on December nights. The 20th Avenue NE collector arterial has become increasingly bike- and pedestrian-friendly with the closure of the
park bridge
Park Bridge is an area of Ashton-under-Lyne, in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside, in Greater Manchester, England. It is situated in the Medlock Valley, by Ashton-under-Lyne's border with Oldham. Park Bridge anciently lay within medieval ma ...
to motor vehicles (1975). NE Ravenna Boulevard is a local bikeway.
An eponymous grocery has been at the same location on the boulevard since the 1920s. Most emblematic of the neighborhood are Queen Mary, serving
Victorian English Tea, and the Duchess Tavern (1934). The only Volvo dealership in town is family-owned and in Ravenna-Bryant.
The accompanying photograph shows an area around the railroad depot in the late 19th century. Between the depot and the mill could now be 25th Avenue NE at the Burke-Gilman Trail. Left of the mill is the Ravenna Depot, center. The straight road left continues past Roper's Grocery on 24th Street, just left of the tree, left of center, to what is now the SE corner of Ravenna Park, behind the house between the foreground trees. Behind the hamlet of Ravenna, middle background, is the new Seattle Female College (c. 1890), "non-sectarian, distinctly Christian", and including the Seattle Conservatory of Music and Ravenna Seminary. The stable for the college is beyond the depot. Left of the college and above the small foreground snag, faintly, is a broad side of the Phillips house, still extant today.
Ravenna-Cowen Park
The conjoined
Cowen Park and Ravenna Park is located at a southwest corner of Ravenna-Bryant, reaching from beyond the source of
Ravenna Creek
Ravenna Creek is a stream in the Ravenna, Seattle, Ravenna and Roosevelt, Seattle, Roosevelt neighborhoods of Seattle, Washington (state), Washington, whose present Daylighting (streams), daylighted length of nearly is entirely within the Ravenna ...
beside nearby Brooklyn Avenue and Ravenna Boulevard, under the 15th Avenue bridge to 25th Avenue NE. The parks comprise the centerpiece of the neighborhood.
For many decades of Seattle city history, the park ravine had been ignored by loggers and farmers and still possessed full
old-growth timber rising nearly 400 feet. The trees remained through the
Alaska–Yukon–Pacific Exposition
The Alaska–Yukon–Pacific Exposition, acronym AYP or AYPE, was a world's fair held in Seattle in 1909 publicizing the development of the Pacific Northwest. It was originally planned for 1907 to mark the 10th anniversary of the Klondike Gold R ...
of 1908, at which they were featured exhibitions. Public controversy about them declined after their gradual disappearance in suspicious circumstances by 1926.
Today, none of that size remain anywhere in the world. The legacy helped save
Seward and
Carkeek parks, and helped galvanize conservation efforts ever since. Today, a single
Sierra Redwood stands over the Medicinal Herb Garden at a south edge of the
UW campus, at 106 feet somewhat over a quarter of the height of those of Cowen Park-Ravenna Park.
Ravenna Creek
Projects have included
daylighting
Daylighting is the practice of placing windows, skylights, other openings, and Reflective surfaces (climate engineering), reflective surfaces so that sunlight (direct or indirect) can provide effective internal lighting. Particular attention is ...
portions of the creek (partly with the goal of restoring native fish runs), building and maintaining trails, and restoring
riparian
A riparian zone or riparian area is the interface between land and a river or stream. Riparian is also the proper nomenclature for one of the terrestrial biomes of the Earth. Plant habitats and communities along the river margins and banks ar ...
habitat, sometimes in collaboration with the
University of Washington
The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington.
Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...
's environmental science program.
[
] Completion of downstream daylighting to the mouth of the creek beside
Union Bay Natural Area
The Union Bay Natural Area (UBNA) in Seattle, Washington, also known as Union Bay Marsh, is the restored remainder of the filled former Union Bay and Union Bay Marsh. It is located at the east end of the main University of Washington campus, so ...
and restoration of migrating fish has come into conflict with property owners, specifically the owners of University Village, even though a revised daylighting project would not include their land.
[(1) Higgins (1997-12-06) "Residents" ]
(2) O'Neil (1998)
(3)
See also
*
Burke–Gilman Trail
The Burke–Gilman Trail is a rail trail in King County, Washington. The multi-use recreational trail is part of the King County Regional Trail System and occupies an abandoned Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railway (SLS&E) corridor.
A porti ...
*
Daylighting (streams)
Daylighting can be defined as "opening up buried watercourses and restoring them to more natural conditions". An alternative definition refers to "the practice of removing streams from buried conditions and exposing them to the Earth's surface ...
*
Ravenna Kibbutz
*
Water resources
Water resources are natural resources of water that are potentially useful for humans, for example as a source of drinking water supply or irrigation water. 97% of the water on the Earth is salt water and only three percent is fresh water; slight ...
References
Bibliography
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*
See heading, "Note about limitations of these data".
*
*
Note caveat in footer.
Maps "NN-1030S", "NN-1040S".jpg dated June 17, 2002.
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The landscape carved by the Vashon Glacier some 14,000 years ago.
*
Page links t
Village Descriptions Duwamish-Seattle section Dailey referenced "Puget Sound Geography" by T. T. Waterman. Washington DC: National Anthropological Archives, mss.
.d. ef. 2 ''Duwamish et al. vs. United States of America, F-275''. Washington DC: US Court of Claims, 1927.
ef. 5
EF or ef may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* Ef (band), a post-rock band from Sweden
* '' Ef: A Fairy Tale of the Two.'', a Japanese adult visual novel series by Minori, or its anime adaptations
Businesses and organizations
* Eagle Forum, an ...
"Indian Lake Washington" by David Buerge in the ''Seattle Weekly'', August 1–7, 1984
ef. 8
EF or ef may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* Ef (band), a post-rock band from Sweden
* '' Ef: A Fairy Tale of the Two.'', a Japanese adult visual novel series by Minori, or its anime adaptations
Businesses and organizations
* Eagle Forum, an ...
"Seattle Before Seattle" by David Buerge in the ''Seattle Weekly'', December 17–23, 1980.
ef. 9 ''The Puyallup-Nisqually'' by Marian W. Smith. New York: Columbia University Press, 1940.
ef. 10 Recommended start i
"Coast Salish Villages of Puget Sound"* Dolan, Maria & True, Kathryn (2003). ''Nature in the city: Seattle''. Seattle: Mountaineers Books, pp. 142–143. (paperback).
* Engineering Department, Traffic and Transportation Division, ''Study : 20th Avenue N.E. bridge closure''. Seattle: The Dept.
ic 1975.
*
*
Dorpat referenced ''Seattle: Now and Then Vols. 1, 2, and 3''. Seattle: Tartu Publications, 1984, 1988;
Walt Crowley and Paul Dorpat, "The Ave: Streetcars to Street Fairs", typescript dated 1995 in possession of Walt Crowley and Paul Dorpat, Seattle, Washington;
Walt Crowley, ''Rites of Passage''. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1995;
''Cal McCune, From Romance to Riot: A Seattle Memoir''. Seattle: Cal McCune, 1996;
Roy Nielsen, ''UniverCity: The City Within City: The Story of the University District'' Seattle: University Lions Foundation, ca. 1986;
Clark Humphrey, ''Loser: the Real Seattle Music Story''. Portland, OR: Feral House, 1995.
*
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*
Updated at
"The Neighbors project was published weekly in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer from 1996 to 2000. This page remains available for archival purposes only and the information it contains may be outdated. For more updated information, please visit ou
Webtownssection."
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See also .
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High-Resolution Version
PDF format, 16.1 MB Medium-Resolution Version
PDF format, 1.45 MB January 12, 2004. Low-Resolution Version
PDF format, 825 KB January 12, 2004. "Planned Arterials Map Legend Definitions"
PDF format. January 12, 2004.
The high resolution version is good for printing, 11 x 17. The low and medium resolution versions are good for quicker online viewing.
nowiki>.html" ;"title="ource
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nowiki>/nowiki>
*
Note caveat in footer.
Maps "NN-1030S", "NN-1040S".jpg dated June 17, 2002.
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Further reading
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Image of Ravenna Park and the greater University District to Union Bay-Portage Bay.
*
* / "with additions by Sunny Walter and local Audubon chapters." / Viewing locations only; the book has walks, hikes, wildlife, and natural wonders.
*
External links
Seattle.gov: Seattle Department of Neighborhoods – Ravenna
{{Seattle neighborhoods
Former municipalities in Washington (state)
Streetcar suburbs