Jane's Walk: The Olmsted Vision

This Sunday we led a stairway walk for Feet First, in honor of Jane Jacobs. She was a journalist and urban critic who in 1961 published the influential book The Death and Life of Great American Cities. "Jane's Walks" have been taking place all over the country, with Feet First sponsoring more than a dozen of them here in Seattle. Jacobs believed that restrictive zoning laws and homogenous urban renewal projects were sapping the vitality of cities and contributing to urban blight. Instead she argued that high-density, mixed-use neighborhoods, with lots of "eyes on the street," were the best model for a vibrant urban community. The purpose of Jane's Walks is to explore and reflect on our own urban environment, and consider what makes our own neighborhoods successful and human-scaled. 

About 25 folks joined us and our special co-leader Jennifer Ott for a stroll along the Olmsted-influenced neighborhoods of Montlake, Stevens and Capitol Hill (Chapter 14 in the book). Jennifer, a historian and President of Friends of Seattle's Olmsted Parks, told us the story of how John C. Olmsted left a huge imprint on the quality of life in Seattle, planning much of the open space that gives both variety and continuity to our neighborhoods.  

Climbing up the 22nd Avenue StairsFor more pictures of our Jane's Walk adventure, check out the slides below. To learn about Feet First walks, check out their website. Their next walk, the "Stadium District Walk and Talk," is coming up soon.

The Olmsted Vision: Arboretum, Interlaken and Volunteer Park

The legendary Olmsted Firm's formative impact on Seattle can be sampled in a trio of parks: Washington Park Arboretum, Interlaken Park and Volunteer Park. They march in sequence to the top of Capitol Hill from the northeast, through the Montlake, Stevens and Broadway neighborhoods, respectively. On this route you'll see the vibrant residential architecture that was created for a newly prospering middle and upper class, at about the same time the Olmsted Firm embarked on a 33-year planning partnership with Seattle, in Spring of 1903.

There are cool and unusual stairways along the way too. Interlaken Park has stairs that force you to carefully watch where you're putting your feet, because each hand-hewn stone step is shaped differently from the one before. Then there's Volunteer Park Water Tower, where 106 steps spiral 75 feet up a steel staircase, sandwiched narrowly between the inner tank and the outer masonry shell. At the top you'll get 360-degree vistas of the Seattle skyline and Bellevue to the east, along with a comprehensive exhibit on the history of the Olmsted Firm in Seattle.

The "www" icon indicates the additional pictures and text referenced in the book. Please scroll down for more pictures.

Louisa Boren was a member of the Denny party that landed at Alki in 1851 to found Seattle. In 1853 she married David Denny, younger brother of the party's leader, in Seattle's first non-native wedding. Louisa was David's life partner through many of the projects that built Seattle, and for a time made the Dennys the wealthiest family in the city. The panic of 1893 almost entirely wiped them out, and David Denny took various jobs into his late 60s in order to support the family. He died at age 71.

Louisa Boren Park was carved out of Interlaken Park in 1913. At the time she died, in 1916, Louisa was the last surviving member of the Denny party.

The route near the beginning passes straight ahead past a small play area; to enter the bulk of the Arboretum, you'd turn left here to cross the Wilcox Trestle

The Stevens neighborhood is filled with lovely houses and yards; here a Tulip tree blossoms in early Spring

Volunteer Park Cafe is a neighborhood fixture...with great food

Cherry blossoms near the end of the route, on a wet Spring day near the end of the walk