Montlake, Seattle
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Montlake is a wealthy residential
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 central
Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is the List of municipalities in Washington, most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the List of Unit ...
. It is located along the Montlake Cut of the Lake Washington Ship Canal, bounded to the north by Portage Bay, to the east by the Washington Park Arboretum, and to the south and west by Interlaken Park. Capitol Hill is on its south and west sides, and the
University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...
campus lies across the Montlake Cut to the north. State Route 520 runs through the northern tip of Montlake, isolating four blocks from the rest of the neighborhood. The (unofficial) City Clerk's map of Montlake considers it to extend further west, past Interlaken Park, extending to Broadway Avenue E. and, between Lynn Street and State Route 520, all the way to
Interstate 5 Interstate 5 (I-5) is the main north–south Interstate Highway System, Interstate Highway on the West Coast of the United States, running largely parallel to the Pacific coast of the contiguous U.S. from Mexico to Canada. It travels thro ...
. Though sports at the University of Washington are referred to metonymically as "Montlake," UW sports facilities are not located within the traditional bounds of the neighborhood; instead, they are located on Montlake Boulevard, across the Montlake Cut from the neighborhood.


History

Montlake was primarily developed by John E. Boyer and Herbert Turner (also known as H.S. Turner) from 1903 through the early 1930s. In 1916, the northern boundary of Montlake was fixed by the opening of the New Portage Canal, later known as the Montlake Cut, between Lake Washington and Lake Union. The Montlake Bridge, a distinctive bascule bridge crossing the Montlake Cut, opened in 1925. In 1925, a Montlake neighbor made a low offer for a tiny slice of adjoining land. Out of spite for the low offer, the builder built an house at 2022 24th Avenue E. that blocked the neighbors' open space. The house is wide at the south end and wide at the north end. The Montlake Spite House still is standing and occupied. The Montlake Community Club, an organization of neighborhood residents, has a distinguished history of grassroots activism. (Critics have called it NIMBY-ism.) Montlake first became politically active in a failed battle to move or avoid building State Route 520 through the northern section of the neighborhood and the arboretum. The neighborhood's efforts were unsuccessful and SR 520 was opened in 1963. The Montlake Community Club lobbied to halt planning of the R.H. Thomson Expressway project of the 1960s. The expressway was to be a second north–south
freeway A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway, and expressway. Other similar terms ...
through the city, parallel to
Interstate 5 Interstate 5 (I-5) is the main north–south Interstate Highway System, Interstate Highway on the West Coast of the United States, running largely parallel to the Pacific coast of the contiguous U.S. from Mexico to Canada. It travels thro ...
but cutting through
Ravenna Ravenna ( ; , also ; ) 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 during the 5th century until its Fall of Rome, collapse in 476, after which ...
, Montlake, Madison Valley, and the Central District, taking out the western section of the Arboretum in the process. It was designed as a bypass around
Downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in American and Canadian English to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political, and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business district ( ...
for through traffic. Interchanges with State Route 520 and I-90 were planned, the former being partially built, but the project was halted before construction went further. Never-used on- and off-ramps stood at the north end of the Arboretum until the SR 520 bridge expansion of the 2010s. Members of the Montlake community continue to negotiate with state and local officials over planned improvements to SR 520 and other local roads. Recently, a neighborhood group called Better Bridge endorsed a proposal to expand SR 520 to six lanes, move it north, and build a lid over the existing 520 freeway to reconnect the Shelby and Hamlin blocks to the rest of the neighborhood. The proposal has been endorsed by some members of Seattle City Council but has not yet been formally approved. Montlake saw a spike in housing prices and the demolition or renovation of several smaller homes starting in the late 1980s, as new residents bought up properties in the neighborhood because of its charm, good schools, and central location.


Characteristics

The neighborhood's main thoroughfares are Boyer Avenue E. (northwest- and southeast-bound), 24th Avenue E. and Lake Washington and Montlake Boulevards E. (north- and southbound), and E. Lake Washington Boulevard (east- and westbound). Montlake has a very small commercial corridor along 24th Avenue East. It includes the Italian restaurant Cafe Lago, Mr. Johnson's Antiques, a branch of Seattle Public Library, a small market, and dry cleaner. The houses in Montlake are primarily single-family homes, mainly early 20th century
American Craftsman American Craftsman is an American domestic architectural style, inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement, which included interior design, landscape design, applied arts, and decorative arts, beginning in the last years of the 19th century. ...
bungalow A bungalow is a small house or cottage that is typically single or one and a half storey, if a smaller upper storey exists it is frequently set in the roof and Roof window, windows that come out from the roof, and may be surrounded by wide ve ...
and Tudor style. Also distinctive are the Old Seattle-style
brick A brick is a type of construction material used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a unit primarily composed of clay. But is now also used informally to denote building un ...
and
wood Wood is a structural tissue/material found as xylem in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulosic fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin t ...
frame homes of the early 20th century, particularly those bordering the Montlake Community Center. Montlake has one church, the Greek Orthodox St. Demetrios, built in 1963 on the grounds of a former garden business called Dahlialand. Montlake was the home of the Museum of History & Industry from 1952 to 2012 and is currently the home of the Seattle Yacht Club (1920) and the Northwest Fisheries Science Center (1931), part of the National Marine Fisheries Service. Montlake's median household income is $208,636 according to the 2019 U.S. Census 5-Year estimate, compared to $92,263 citywide.


References


Further reading

* Smith, Eugene. ''Montlake: An Urban Eden''. La Grande, OR: Oak Street Press, 2004. *
Bridge Plan Rattles Seattle Enclave
" ''New York Times'', March 5, 2006. egistration required*
Tranquil arboretum caught in 520 storm
" ''Seattle Post-Intelligencer", October 31, 2006.


External links


Seattle Neighborhoods: Montlake -- Thumbnail History
at HistoryLink
Montlake Community Club website
{{Seattle neighborhoods