public park
An urban park or metropolitan park, also known as a city park, municipal park (North America), public park, public open space, or municipal gardens (United Kingdom, UK), is a park or botanical garden in cities, densely populated suburbia and oth ...
in
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 ...
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
, most of which is taken up by the Washington Park Arboretum, a joint project of 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 ...
Lake Washington Boulevard E. runs north and south through the park, parallel to the creek. A secondary road, for most of its length named Arboretum Drive E. and for a short northern stretch named E. Foster Island Road, runs along the Arboretum's eastern edge. E. Interlaken Boulevard and Boyer Avenue E. run northwest out of the park to Montlake and beyond. State Route 520 cuts through Foster Island and the Union Bay
wetland
A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially ...
s at the park's northern end, interchanging with Lake Washington Boulevard just outside the arboretum entrance. A footpath winds underneath the freeway overpasses and over boardwalks, along the Lake Washington ship canal, and into the gardens of the Arboretum.
The Arboretum is well known for Azalea Way in the springtime, a stretch of the park which offers a unique tapestry of azaleas of many colors. The area is a popular site for strolling and is utilized by photographers and artists. The manicured Azalea Way stands out in stark contrast with the Arboretum's wild and heavily canopied areas.
The land occupied by the Washington Park Arboretum has been developed and is owned by the city, but the Arboretum is operated primarily by 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 ...
.
Arboretum Creek is approximately long, entirely within the park. Its average channel width is and its average channel depth is . The creek's source is a spring-fed stream in the Alder Creek Natural Area, three publicly owned properties on 26th Ave East between East Helen and Prospect streets. The stream feeds the koi
pond
A pond is a small, still, land-based body of water formed by pooling inside a depression (geology), depression, either naturally or artificiality, artificially. A pond is smaller than a lake and there are no official criteria distinguishing ...
in Washington Park's
Japanese Garden
are traditional gardens whose designs are accompanied by Japanese aesthetics and philosophical ideas, avoid artificial ornamentation, and highlight the natural landscape. Plants and worn, aged materials are generally used by Japanese garden desig ...
, near Washington Park Playfield at the park's southern end. It also receives runoff from
Rhododendron
''Rhododendron'' (; : ''rhododendra'') is a very large genus of about 1,024 species of woody plants in the Ericaceae, heath family (Ericaceae). They can be either evergreen or deciduous. Most species are native to eastern Asia and the Himalayan ...
Glen and the Woodland Garden, as well as sub-surface
drainage
Drainage is the natural or artificial removal of a surface's water and sub-surface water from an area with excess water. The internal drainage of most agricultural soils can prevent severe waterlogging (anaerobic conditions that harm root gro ...
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 ...
via Willow Bay, itself a minor arm of Union Bay, having passed through numerous culverts under Lake Washington Boulevard.
History
Prior to colonization, the area which would become Washington Park was home to the Duwamish people. They called it ''Sxwacugwit,'' meaning "
portage
Portage or portaging ( CA: ; ) is the practice of carrying water craft or cargo over land, either around an obstacle in a river, or between two bodies of water. A path where items are regularly carried between bodies of water is also called a '' ...
" or "narrow passage" due to its strategic importance as a transportation link between the coast and the inland river systems which fed into Lake Washington. The Duwamish village of Slalal stood east of the mouth of Arboretum Creek. https://depts.washington.edu/uwbg/docs/arbhistory.pdf Under the Treaty of Point Elliott the land was opened to white settlement in 1855.
In the 19th century, the land was purchased from the federal government by Fred Drew, a timber surveyor working for the Puget Mill Company. The old-growth forest was logged in the 1880s and 1890s, after which the company planned to develop the land. However, these plans were halted by the
Panic of 1893
The Panic of 1893 was an economic depression in the United States. It began in February 1893 and officially ended eight months later. The Panic of 1896 followed. It was the most serious economic depression in history until the Great Depression of ...
. The City of Seattle Parks Commission acquired the property in 1900, and contracted the
Olmsted Brothers
The Olmsted Brothers company was a Landscape architecture, 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 ar ...
landscaping firm to design the park. Lake Washington Boulevard was built in 1903 and a speedway for horse racing was built.
The area remained largely undeveloped until 1920, when the parcel was split in two. The eastern 200 acres (0.8 km2) were developed as the Broadmoor Golf Club by a group of businessmen that included E. G. Ames, general manager of Puget Mill. The western 230 acres were given to the city, who developed a park and arboretum on the site. On the basis of the agreement approved by 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 ...
(Board of Regents) and the City of Seattle (City Council/Mayor), The Washington Park Arboretum was established in 1934. The former horse racing track was converted into a pedestrian path called Azalea Way.
During the
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...
many improvements to the park were made by
Works Progress Administration
The Works Progress Administration (WPA; from 1935 to 1939, then known as the Work Projects Administration from 1939 to 1943) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to car ...
crews, who built drainage infrastructure and fences, cleared land, planted plants, and built a number of park buildings.
Eleanor Roosevelt
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt ( ; October 11, 1884November 7, 1962) was an American political figure, diplomat, and activist. She was the longest-serving First Lady of the United States, first lady of the United States, during her husband Franklin D ...
visited the park in 1938 and planted an
elm
Elms are deciduous and semi-deciduous trees comprising the genus ''Ulmus'' in the family Ulmaceae. They are distributed over most of the Northern Hemisphere, inhabiting the temperate and tropical- montane regions of North America and Eurasia, ...
tree.
The Japanese Garden was opened in June 1960. The original teahouse was destroyed by arson in April 1973, and a replacement was opened in March 1981. Some WPA-era maintenance buildings were replaced by the current visitor's center, which opened in 1985 on the 50th anniversary of the Arboretum Foundation.
SR 520 Highway impacts
Ghost ramps
State Route 520 had a set of ghost ramps in the marshlands of the arboretum. They were built in 1962 as part of a future plan to build the R. H. Thomson Expressway, which would have cut through the arboretum and down through Seattle towards the I-90/I-5 interchange. Citizens rallied a freeway revolt against the plan on May 4, 1969. Construction near the Arboretum later continued, but citizen protest eventually won out and the plan was dropped in 1971. One ramp was used for the on-ramp from Lake Washington Boulevard to SR 520 Eastbound, while the others remained unused and became known locally as "ramps to nowhere".
The freeway revolt that stopped the R. H. Thomson Expressway had its origins in opposition to SR 520 itself. Architect Victor Steinbrueck, writing in 1962, objected to the "naked brutality of unimaginative structures such as this proposed crossing of Portage Bay, which eliminates fifty houseboats while casting its shadow and noise across this tranquil boat haven."
In 2013 the
Washington State Department of Transportation
The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT or WashDOT, both ) is a governmental agency that constructs, maintains, and regulates the use of transportation infrastructure in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington. Establi ...
announced plans to dismantle the ghost ramps. To commemorate the ramps and protest their demolition, a local art collective created an installation, ''Gate to Nowhere'', on one of the ramps in 2014. The piece consisted of a layer of reflective acrylic wrapping a pair of support columns.
The ghost ramp removal work began in the spring of 2016 as part of the 520 Bridge Replacement Project. They were mostly removed by 2017, though one section was kept as parking for contractors working on the new floating bridge. The final section was removed in 2024, with the exception of a single bridge support consisting of four columns and a support beam. This was allowed to remain as a historical monument in commemoration of the ghost ramps and the freeway revolt.
Bridge Replacement Project
The potential impact of plans to reconstruct and expand State Route 520 and replace the
Evergreen Point Floating Bridge
The Evergreen Point Floating Bridge, also known as the 520 Bridge and officially the Governor Albert D. Rosellini Bridge, is a floating bridge that carries Washington State Route 520 across Lake Washington from Seattle to its eastern suburbs ...
in the early 2010s raised concerns among Arboretum staff and park users. As the members of the Arboretum community noted in their collective letter to the Washington State Department of Transportation, "Native plants, wetlands, and wildlife ... would be affected not only by the taking of land but by the looming shadows created by roadways in various proposals". Among the alternative proposals was the "Arboretum Bypass Plan," to build the new elevated highway over Union Bay on a more northerly route than the then-existing one. Although the final alignment of the new bridge was 35 feet north of the previous bridge, it did not go over Union Bay.
The bridge replacement project included a number of measures to reduce or mitigate ecological impact as well as some improvements to the arboretum. Eight
ecological restoration
Ecological restoration, or ecosystem restoration, is the process of assisting the recovery of an ecosystem that has been degraded, damaged, destroyed or transformed. It is distinct from conservation in that it attempts to retroactively repair ...
projects were completed using bridge replacement funding, both in the vicinity of the bridge and around the Puget Sound region. Park improvements included a new multiuse trail from East Madison Street to Montlake and the University District and a pedestrian undercrossing on Foster Island.
Seattle Japanese Garden
The Seattle Japanese Garden is a 3.5 acre (14,000 m2)
Japanese garden
are traditional gardens whose designs are accompanied by Japanese aesthetics and philosophical ideas, avoid artificial ornamentation, and highlight the natural landscape. Plants and worn, aged materials are generally used by Japanese garden desig ...
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 ...
. The Garden is located in the Southern end of the Washington Park Arboretum on Lake Washington Boulevard East. The Garden is one of the oldest Japanese Gardens in North America, and is regarded as one of the most authentic Japanese Gardens in the United States.