Madrona is a mostly

residential A residential area is a land used in which houses, housing predominates, as opposed to industrial district, industrial and Commercial Area, commercial areas. Housing may vary significantly between, and through, residential areas. These include ...

neighborhood A neighbourhood (Commonwealth English) or neighborhood (American English) is a geographically localized community within a larger town, city, suburb or rural area, sometimes consisting of a single street and the buildings lining it. Neigh ...

in east

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

, Washington. It is bounded on the east by

Lake Washington Lake Washington () is a large freshwater lake adjacent to the city of Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the largest lake in King County, Washington, King County and the second largest natural lake in the state of Washington (state), Was ...

; on the south by E. Cherry Street, beyond which is Leschi; on the west by Martin Luther King Jr. Way, beyond which is the Central District; and on the north by E. Howell Street, beyond which is Denny-Blaine. The neighborhood's main thoroughfares are E. Union and E. Cherry Streets (east- and westbound), Madrona Drive (northwest- and southeast-bound), and 34th Avenue and Lake Washington Boulevard (north- and southbound). It is home to Madrona Park and the 34th Avenue and E. Union commercial area.

History

The neighborhood was named by John Ayer, who contributed the land for Madrona Park, after a species of tree (

Arbutus ''Arbutus'' is a genus of 12 accepted speciesAct. Bot. Mex no.99 Pátzcuaro abr. 2012.''Arbutus bicolor''/ref> of flowering plants in the family Ericaceae, native to temperate regions of the Mediterranean, western Europe, the Canary Islands a ...

) common to the area. Madrona's motto, "The Peaceable Kingdom," reflects its racially mixed heritage. In the early 20th century, the

coal mining Coal mining is the process of resource extraction, extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its Energy value of coal, energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to Electricity generation, generate electr ...

industry brought Chinese immigrants to Madrona. Later, the

shipbuilding Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and other Watercraft, floating vessels. In modern times, it normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation th ...

boom brought an influx of

African Americans African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa ...

. For most of the second half of the 20th century, 34th Avenue divided the neighborhood between mostly middle-class African American (to the west) and upper-class Caucasian (to the east). The

Black Panthers The Black Panther Party (originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense) was a Marxist–Leninist and black power political organization founded by college students Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton in October 1966 in Oakland, California ...

used the Madrona Playfield on Spring Street and 34th Avenue as its marching drill location in Seattle. In more recent years, as the neighborhood has gentrified, Madrona has seen a steady decline in its Black population. The 2018

American Community Survey The American Community Survey (ACS) is an annual demographics survey program conducted by the United States Census Bureau. It regularly gathers information previously contained only in the long form of the United States census, decennial census ...

5-Year Estimates notes that, of the 5,675 residents in King County Census Tract 78 (covering Madrona east of 31st Avenue), 75% are White Non-Hispanic (up from 65% in 1990), 6% are African American (down from 29% in 1990), 4% are Asian (4% in 1990), 11% are Mixed race, and 4% are Hispanic. Census tract 77 with 5,382 residents, two-thirds of which is in the Central District, is 67% White Non-Hispanic, 13% African American, 7% Asian, 8% Mixed race, and 5% Hispanic.

References

External links

Madrona Neighborhood websiteMadrona neighborhood profile and stats
{{Seattle neighborhoods