Native brand
Before the white settlers arrived in Seattle In the mid-1800sThe place now called Mont Lake Watery world King George, whose ancestors spent time in the area, said it supports the local native community.
“This would have been a seasonal place to live using cycle resources,” he strolled around Monlake, referring to salmonberry, blackberry, wapato, salmon and cutthroat trout.
The shallow stream ran west across the Montlake hourglass-shaped canyon that flowed from Lake Washington to Lake Union. Native people couldn’t pass through all the time, so the lush name for the place was sxʷacəgʷił (sxwats-a-gweeth). This means “carrying canoes,” King George said.
“It was a Portage location,” the historian said of the area now known as Monlake, and in the past, nodding about Portage Bay. “You went outside, pushing and carrying canoes, walking through Reed, Tours and Catel.”
Under Mont Lake Bridge, cars and trucks ring in the past, it is difficult to recall the sights and sounds of 1850. But King George has a clue on the map of the lush name.
King George said that his world is almost completely gone, and the native perspective is barely present in today’s neighbourhood land use debate.
Big change
Settlers who quickly founded Seattle Passed the law (Ordinance number 5) For indigenous people living in new cities. They used treaties and enforcement to assert local ownership.
Within a few years, newcomers saw the opportunity to promote business and travel by unearthing channels through the Mont Lake canyon.
Harvey Pike failed 1860suse Piccax, Shovel, and Wheel Barrow. David Denny and others hired Chinese workers to dig the trench 1880s So he was able to move logs from Lake Washington to the sawmill at Lake Union. Seattle’s Pike Place Market and Denny Way still carry their last names.
When the city annexed Montlake 1891the only indigenous people living in the area were Cheshiahad, a local leader also known as “Lake John,” and his wife, Tory Blitza. Cheshihad, who carved Cedar canoes and sometimes served as a guide for the settlers, managed to stay in Portage Bay after becoming friends with Denny. King George said.
In 1910, the same year, Chesia Food died after moving to Port Madison Indian Reservation, the US Army Corps of Engineers. Dynamite used To excavate a large canal called the Mont Lake Cut.
That explosive project reduced levels of Lake Washington, drained local wetlands, destroyed the lake’s exit to the Black River, causing its channels to dry out and decomposed the entire ecosystem. It changed the landscape rather than the changes in zoning we are considering today.
“The entire river system has been compromised,” King George said.
Intentional development
Few homes were built in Monterike until the early 1900s, when real estate developer John Boyer bought the land and lobbyed the city to build Interlake Park. To attract wealthy buyers, he placed a restrictive contract on the new Montlake property, demanding that the new home be sold “too much above the average price at the time.” According to the city’s historical report.
The report states that property certificates were “an early measure to enforce single-family zoning,” banning businesses and apartments.
Development crept north after the tram began carrying passengers to Washington University. Small and medium-sized business districts have sprouted.
In the 1920s, ’30s, ’40s, many Montlake homes were subject to racial restrictions. For example, contract Covers up to 390 properties He said it would never be rented, rented, rented or occupied by “people of a non-white race.”
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on such contracts in 1948, and in 1968 Congress banned them. However, detached house zoning continued to block Monlake apartments and businesses outside the short strip at 24th Avenue East.
Many of the Montlake homes were built in the Tudor style and have mimicked English architecture since the 1500s in deliberate attempts to give it a historic European vibe, said Coltslash, a history professor studying the northwest of the University of British Columbia.
“These were attempts by developers to make the place seem calm and permanent, even if it actually happened,” Thrush said.
Lamps everywhere
Since 1950, Montlake has experienced major infrastructure changes on the one hand, while residents have virtually zero change on the other hand.
The state built highway 520 across Lake Washington 1960scarving noisy concrete strips through Mont Lake, further polluting the area’s natural resources. The neighborhood was a comfortable place to grow, said Robin Bentley of Longtimer.
A community club with “political influence” fought to protect the “highest qualities” of the neighborhood. Written by Eugene Smithauthor of a book on history about Montlake.
Montracker joined supporters from other regions to block the construction of additional highways from Expressway 520 through the Central District and Rainier Valley. The remnants of the project’s “The Lamp Doesn’t Go Anywhere” stand as a monument to activism “not in my backyard.”
Meanwhile, another stock of resistance supports the city’s current state strategy. Seattle has been turning new apartments and businesses into “urban villages” in places like Ballard, Lake City and the City of Columbia for decades, but has turned areas like Mon Lake off limits.
Coupled with Montlake’s high prices and unique geography, its strategy explains why its housing stock has barely changed.
Area has added a new library 2006It has the light rails at the 2016 Husky Stadium and the lid of the park where the bus stop last year is. The elementary school on east of 22nd Avenue A huge expansion.
Today’s discussion
Some residents are unstable with Harrell’s plans to allow apartments and townhomes not only along the Monlake business strip, but also on the surrounding blocks. You can reach the new neighbourhood center building Up to 5 stories. There is a shortage of empty lots, so existing stores and homes need to be replaced (the exception is the old Highway 520 grocery store site).
Whether or not the city council has passed Harrell’s plan, Seattle will soon allow at least four housing units per citywide housing lot, as required by state law of 2023.
Critics say the dense development could exacerbate the traffic problem of Monlake’s bottlenecks. It undermines its historical character and disrupts the quiet Washington Park Arboretum, which borders its neighbourhood.
“The streets cannot handle any more cars,” one public commenter wrote to the city last year, adding, “This plan will have a negative impact on wildlife habitats.”
There are also supporters in Harrell’s plans. Some of them argue that the proposed zoning changes should affect more blocks across the city and Mont Lake, particularly close to UW Hospitals and light rails.
“The proximity to both UW, Capitol Hill and the arboretum makes it a very obvious option to allow and encourage more housing,” Upzones supporters wrote last year, commenting on a map of the mayor’s proposed changes.
Danny Greco, a real estate agent who raises children in Monlake, does not expect rapid development even if he approves Harrell’s plans. Most of the lots in the neighborhood are small. Apartment builders may struggle to do a lot without purchasing adjacent properties, he said.
Other residents feel they are being pulled in multiple directions.
Sabrina sees the best of the wisdom behind Harrell’s proposal. Because she moved to one of Montlake’s few apartment buildings a year ago. When she was searching for a place, there were not many options. But she said UW research scientists hate seeing “melt” mokakes get as crowded as ballads.
Workinesh Tianen has also been torn apart since the 1980s, the owner of the modest Mont Lake Bungalow. Tianen is worried about violating development into a lush arboretum. However, retirees also see how home prices have skyrocketed in recent years, exceeding $1.5 million in recent years. Her adult son lives south of Seattle. People like him can’t afford Montlake, she said.
History lessons
Tianen’s favorite local business is Montlake’s flagship, known as Johnson’s bones. Packed with heirlooms, treasures and chotchkes, it is a space dedicated to the past and a place of updates, bringing the old to new life by giving new homes by inquisitive shoppers.
Johnson doesn’t like the idea of a huge new building that casts a shadow over Mont Lake. At the same time, “change is inevitable,” he said.
“There are a lot of lovely young people who come to our store, and they will live here completely if they can shake it,” added Colman Moore, a young store manager who grew up in Monlake and would like to return one day.
A poster across from Johnson says that Updzon will be “Montlake’s biggest change in over 100 history,” a poster that was tapered to a light pole by residents concerned about Harrell’s plans. King George disagreed with that, he said.
Mucklesshoot’s historians are wary of unidentified developments that could wreak havoc on the environment and culture. He is also wary of stories that treat 20th-century neighborhoods like Montlake as original and sacred.
As Seattle tackles climate impacts, income inequality and housing shortages, King George hopes the city will learn from past mistakes.
“There’s a balance there,” he said. “You’ll have to find it.”
