View Ridge is a

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, ...

in north

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 ...

. As with all Seattle neighborhoods, its boundaries are not fixed, but can be thought of as NE 65th Street in the south, 40th and 45th Avenues NE in the west, the Sand Point Country Club in the north, and Sand Point Way NE in the east. Many homes offer views of

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, ...

Mount Rainier Mount Rainier (), indigenously known as Tahoma, Tacoma, Tacobet, or təqʷubəʔ, is a large active stratovolcano in the Cascade Range of the Pacific Northwest, located in Mount Rainier National Park about south-southeast of Seattle. With a s ...

, and the

Cascade Range The Cascade Range or Cascades is a major mountain range of western North America, extending from southern British Columbia through Washington and Oregon to Northern California. It includes both non-volcanic mountains, such as the North Cascades, ...

. View Ridge Elementary School is located within the neighborhood, and the neighborhood also offers a large park and playfield ( View Ridge Park) across the street from the elementary school. The View Ridge Swim and Tennis Club is located on the eastern edge of View Ridge, and the Sand Point Country Club is located on the northern edge.

Demographics

View Ridge is home to a considerable

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

community, with a

Hasidic Hasidism, sometimes spelled Chassidism, and also known as Hasidic Judaism (Ashkenazi Hebrew: חסידות ''Ḥăsīdus'', ; originally, "piety"), is a Jewish religious group that arose as a spiritual revival movement in the territory of contem ...

synagogue A synagogue, ', 'house of assembly', or ', "house of prayer"; Yiddish: ''shul'', Ladino: or ' (from synagogue); or ', "community". sometimes referred to as shul, and interchangeably used with the word temple, is a Jewish house of worshi ...

, Congregation Shaarei Tefillah Lubavitch, located at the corner of NE 65th St. and 43rd Ave. NE. There are several churches, too: Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian, and Catholic. In addition to the public elementary and middle school, there are many private schools nearby.

Geography

View Ridge is roughly bounded by NE 65th Street in the south, beyond which is Hawthorne Hills; 40th and 45th Avenues NE in the west, beyond which is

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 ...

; the Sand Point Country Club in the north, beyond which is Matthews Beach; and Sand Point Way NE in the east, beyond which is Sand Point. View Ridge is located on a hill overlooking

Magnuson Park Magnuson Park is a park in the Sand Point neighborhood of Seattle, Washington, United States. At it is the second-largest park in Seattle, after Discovery Park in Magnolia (which covers ). Magnuson Park is located at the site of the former Na ...

as well as the former Naval Air Station Seattle. The neighborhood encompasses an area of approximately . The neighborhood is a high point between the adjacent neighborhoods of Wedgwood and Hawthorne Hills.

History

View Ridge was first settled in 1936 by Ralph Jones and Al Balch; it is one of the newest neighborhoods in Seattle. Upon buying of forest land in what is now the neighborhood, Jones and Balch cleared trees to create views of Lake Washington and the Cascades. They then sold lots on their land for $450 to $950 and created publicity for their property sales. Their initial success in selling land in View Ridge enabled them to expand their efforts, and they bought more land to reach the current boundaries of View Ridge. The neighborhood was annexed into Seattle in 1942. View Ridge Elementary School was founded with

portable classroom A portable classroom (also known as a demountable or relocatable classroom, portables, bungalows), is a type of portable building installed at a school to temporarily and quickly provide additional classroom space where there is a shortage of ...

s in 1944 and was built in 1948. In the late 1980s, View Ridge became the site of a series of

arson Arson is the crime of willfully and deliberately setting fire to or charring property. Although the act of arson typically involves buildings, the term can also refer to the intentional burning of other things, such as motor vehicles, wat ...

s. The first fires occurred in March 1987, when four houses were set on fire in one night, resulting in the death of an elderly couple. In 1989, several more cases of arson were committed in the neighborhood; the arsonists responsible ultimately set forty fires.

References

{{commons category, View Ridge, Seattle, Washington Jews and Judaism in Seattle