Ravenna, Seattle, Washington

, is a popular feature of the neighborhood. [cite web
year =2005
url =http://www.seattle.gov/transportation/urbantrailsmap1.htm
title ="Seattle's Urban Trail System, January 2004"
work =Seattle DOT Bicycle Program
publisher =Seattle Department of Transportation
accessdate =2006-04-21]

Ravenna and Ravenna-Bryant

What is now Ravenna has been inhabited since the end of the last glacial period (c. 8,000 B.C.E.—10,000 years ago). The Native American Duwamish (before contact, the "Dkh^w’Duw’Absh", "the People of the Inside") tribe of the Lushootseed (Skagit-Nisqually) Coast Salish nations had the prominent village of "SWAH-tsoo-gweel" ("portage") on then-adjacent Union Bay, and what is now Ravenna was their backyard before the arrival of White settlers. [Dailey, 26, ref. 2, 8)] The Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railway was built c. 1886 along what is now the Burke-Gilman Trail, following what was the shoreline past where the UW power plant and University Village are today. [Phelps (1978), p. 25] In 1891, a streetcar line followed what is now 15th Avenue NE, then followed near the southern boundary of what is now Ravenna, where the narrow right-of-way remains clearly visible beside the park. Ravenna Boulevard was built in 1903 as a small part of the Olmsted Brothers' grand plan for Seattle streets and parks.cite web
year = 2003
month = April
url=http://www.v4.historylink.org/cybertour/index.cfm?file_id=7054
title ="Olmsted Park Plans Cybertour"
work =Point 1 of 21
publisher =HistoryLink.org
accessdate =2006-04-21] Ravenna incorporated as an independent town in 1906, which permitted Seattle to annex it in 1907.Wilma (2001-08-20, Essay 3502)] Ravenna south of the Burke-Gilman Trail is filled land from dump sites at 26th Avenue, filling the drained Union Bay Marsh and much of Union Bay. [(1) Marsh drained 1916 with the opening of the Montlake Cut of the Lake Washington Ship Canal. Fill sites 1911, 1920, 1926; last acreage in the University District closed 1966 or 1967).
(1.1) Phelps (1978), pp. 208, 210; "HISTORY @UBNA", next.
(1.2) cite web
last =
first =
date=n.d., 1999 per [http://depts.washington.edu/ubna/landfillreport.pdf "Montlake Landfill Information SumMarchy, January 1999"] on page
url =http://depts.washington.edu/ubna/history.htm
title ="HISTORY @ UBNA"
work =Center for Urban Horticulture, Departments of the University of Washington
publisher =
accessdate =2006-04-21] University Village (1956) was built on the southernmost reclaimed land in Ravenna. [Dorpat (2001-06-18, Essay 3380)]

Ravenna is bounded on the west by 15th and 20th Avenues NE, beyond which lies the Roosevelt neighborhood; on the north by NE 75th and 85th Streets, beyond which lie Maple Leaf and Wedgwood; on the east by 35th and 25th Avenues NE, beyond which lie View Ridge, Windermere and Laurelhurst; [(1) cite web
date=2002-06-17
url=http://clerk.ci.seattle.wa.us/public/nmaps/html/NN-0004S.htm
title ="Area 4"
work =Seattle City Clerk's Neighborhood Map Atlas
publisher =Office of the Seattle City Clerk
accessdate =2006-04-21
(2) cite web
url =http://clerk.ci.seattle.wa.us/~public/nmaps/html/NN-1085S.htm
title ="Ravenna"
work =Seattle City Clerk's Neighborhood Map Atlas
publisher =Office of the Seattle City Clerk
accessdate =2006-04-21 ] cite web
date=2002-06-17
url=http://clerk.ci.seattle.wa.us/~public/nmaps/html/NN-1090S.htm
title ="Bryant"
work =Seattle City Clerk's Neighborhood Map Atlas
publisher =Office of the Seattle City Clerk
accessdate =2006-04-21] and on the south by NE Ravenna Boulevard, and NE Blakeley or NE 45th Streets, beyond which lie the University District and sometimes University Village (boundaries are informal). University Village and Calvary Cemetery are in south Ravenna. [(1) cite web
url =http://clerk.ci.seattle.wa.us/~public/nmaps/html/NN-1085S.htm
title ="Ravenna"
work =Seattle City Clerk's Neighborhood Map Atlas
publisher =Office of the Seattle City Clerk
accessdate =2006-04-21 (2) cite web
date= 2006-04-30
url=http://clerk.ci.seattle.wa.us/~public/about.htm
title ="About the Seattle City Clerk's On-line Information Services"
work =Information Services
publisher =Seattle City Clerk's Office
accessdate =2006-05-21]

The adjacent Bryant neighborhood, or Ravenna-Bryant, extends the neighborhood east to 45th Avenue, south of 75th Street and north of Sand Point Way. The portion of south-central Ravenna adjacent to the University Village shopping complex is often considered part of the University Village neighborhoodFact|date=January 2007, and Ravenna east of 25th Avenue NE is considered Ravenna-Bryant.

The principal arterial is 25th Avenue NE; minor arterials are 15th and 35th Avenues, and NE 65th Street; 40th Avenue NE and NE 55th Street are collector arterials. [cite web
year =2005
url=http://www.seattle.gov/transportation/streetclassmaps.htm
title ="Street Classification Maps"
publisher =Seattle Department of Transportation
accessdate =2006-04-21] Besides the eponymous boulevard, arguably its most well-known street is Candy Cane Lane. On the length of Park Road (one block and a little roundabout) residents have been creating an elaborate Christmas display since 1951, bringing bumper-to-bumper traffic to the boulevard on December nights. [Hook (2000-11-23)] The 20th Avenue collector arterial has become increasingly bike- and pedestrian-friendly with the closure of the park bridge to motor vehicles (1975). [(1) Engineering Department, Traffic and Transportation Division, "Study : 20th Avenue N.E. bridge closure". Seattle, WA: The Dept. [sic] , 1975.
(2) Higgins (1999-07-30) "Traffic"] Ravenna Boulevard is a popular bikeway.

There are small commercial clusters on 25th Avenue between Blakeley and 55th, on 55th east of 25th, on 65th between 20th and 25th, and along Blakeley.Fact|date=January 2007 An eponymous grocery has been at the same location on the boulevard since the 1920s. [Lund (2006-03-15)] Most emblematic of the neighborhood are Queen Mary, serving Victorian English Tea; the Duchess Tavern (1934), and the Blue Moon, the oldest still-extant around the University of Washington. The only Volvo dealership in town is family-owned and in Ravenna-Bryant. [Higgins (1997-12-06) "Area"]

The accompanying photograph shows an area around the railroad depot in the late 19th Century. Between the depot and the mill could now be 25th Avenue NE at the Burke-Gilman Trail. Left of the mill is the Ravenna Depot, center. The straight road left continues past Roper's Grocery on 24th Street, just left of the tree, left of center, to what is now the SE corner of Ravenna Park, behind the house between the foreground trees. Behind the hamlet of Ravenna, middle background, is the new Seattle Female College (c. 1890), "non-sectarian, distinctly Christian", and including the Seattle Conservatory of Music and Ravenna Seminary. The stable for the college is beyond the depot. Left of the college and above the small foreground snag, faintly, is a broad side of the Phillips house, still extant today. [(1) Dorpat (1994), ch. 42
(2) Dorpat (1981), images 104-U, 105-U, 106-U, 107-U]

Cowen Park–Ravenna Park and Ravenna Creek

The conjoined Cowen Park-Ravenna Park is located at a southwest corner of Ravenna-Bryant, reaching from beyond the source of Ravenna Creek beside nearby Brooklyn Avenue and Ravenna Boulevard, under the 15th Avenue bridge to 25th Avenue NE. The parks comprise the centerpiece of the neighborhood.

For many decades of Seattle city history, the park ravine had been ignored by loggers and farmers and still possessed full old-growth timber rising nearly 400 feet. [(1)Wilma (2001-08-20), Essay 3502
(1.1) See also list of newspaper articles referenced by Wilma
(2) Dolan & True (2003), pp. 142–143.
(3) Van Pelt (2001), pp. xxii, 181–185, 187–191.] The trees remained through the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition of 1908, at which they were featured exhibitions. Public controversy about them declined after their gradual disappearance in suspicious circumstances by 1926. Today, none of that size remain anywhere in the world. [(1)Wilma (2001-08-20), Essay 3502
(1.1) See also list of newspaper articles referenced by Wilma
(2) Higgins (1999-07-30), "Traffic"
(3) Van Pelt (2001)] The legacy helped save Seward and Carkeek parks, and helped galvanize conservation efforts ever since. [Dolan & True (2003), p. 142] Today, a single Sierra Redwood stands over the Medicinal Herb Garden at a south edge of the UW campus, at 106 feet somewhat over a quarter of the height of those of Cowen Park-Ravenna Park. [(1)Located at an edge of the central main campus, SSW of Drumheller Fountain near Stevens Way. (2) Dolan & True (2003), p. 144.]

Ravenna Creek's original source was Green Lake, from Haller and Bitter lakes, then the Cowen Park ravine west wall when the watershed was diverted to sewers (1908-1948). [(0)(See also "Seattle History: Maps" [http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/news/local/seattle_history/articles/covermap11.html] , referenced below.)
(1) The water table is relatively shallow, held by the extensive layer of clays that underlay the metro region. The creek source is actually seeping from the original west wall of the ravine, even though the gulch has been partially filled at the southwest corner of Cowen Park.
(1.1) Dolan & True (2003), p. 143; Phelps (1978), p. 22.
(2) Sewers (1908-1911, 1931, 1948, major break 1957-58), Phelps p. 284, 199; 191; 201; 194-5.] In the mid-1960s, the Cowen Park ravine was largely filled using freeway construction spoils. The City of Seattle planned to use the ravine for staging a comprehensive stormwater drainage piping project in 1986, galvanizing the neighborhoods of the watershed to protect and restore the park. [Hadley (1986-06-12)] Since 1991, the park has seen major restoration by residents of neighborhoods in collaboration with the City. [(1) Dolan & True (2003), pp. 142–3.
(2) cite web
month = August
year = 1998
url=http://home.earthlink.net/~ravennacreek/chronology.htm
title ="Chronology"
publisher =Ravenna Creek Alliance
accessdate =2006-04-21] Projects have included daylighting portions of the creek (partly with the goal of restoring native fish runs), building and maintaining trails, and restoring riparian habitat. [(1) Dolan & True (2003)
(2) O'Neil (1998)
(3) cite web
month = August
year = 1998
url=http://home.earthlink.net/~ravennacreek/chronology.htm
title ="Chronology"
publisher =Ravenna Creek Alliance
accessdate =2006-04-21
(4) Whittemore (n.d.)] cite web
date=2005-11-09
url=http://home.earthlink.net/~ravennacreek/specific.htm
title ="Ravenna Creek Alliance: Specific Info"
publisher =Ravenna Creek Alliance
accessdate =2006-04-21] Completion of downstream daylighting to the mouth of the creek beside Union Bay Natural Area and restoration of migrating fish has come into conflict with property owners, specifically the owners of University Village, even though a revised daylighting project would not include their land. [(1) Higgins (1997-12-06) "Residents"
(2) O'Neil (1998)
(3) cite web
date=2005-11-09
url=http://home.earthlink.net/~ravennacreek/specific.htm
title ="Ravenna Creek Alliance: Specific Info"
publisher =Ravenna Creek Alliance
accessdate =2006-04-21]

See also

* Burke-Gilman Trail
* Daylighting (streams)
* Stream
* Water resources

References

Bibliography

*
*
See heading, "Note about limitations of these data".
*
*
Note caveat in footer.
Maps "NN-1030S", "NN-1040S".jpgdated 17 June, 2002.
*
*
The landscape carved by the Vashon Glacier some 14,000 years ago.
*
Page links to [http://coastsalishmap.org/Village_Descriptions_Duwamish-Seattle.htm Village Descriptions Duwamish-Seattle section] .
Dailey referenced "Puget Sound Geography" by T. T. Waterman. Washington DC: National Anthropological Archives, mss. [n.d.] [ref. 2] ;
"Duwamish et al vs. United States of America, F-275". Washington DC: US Court of Claims, 1927. [ref. 5] ;
"Indian Lake Washington" by David Buerge in the "Seattle Weekly", 1-7 August 1984 [ref. 8] ;
"Seattle Before Seattle" by David Buerge in the "Seattle Weekly", 17-23 December 1980. [ref. 9] ;
"The Puyallup-Nisqually" by Marian W. Smith. New York: Columbia University Press, 1940. [ref. 10] .
Recommended start is [http://coastsalishmap.org/start_page.htm "Coast Salish Villages of Puget Sound"]
* Dolan, Maria & True, Kathryn (2003). "Nature in the city: Seattle". Seattle: Mountaineers Books, pp. 142–143. ISBN 0-89886-879-3 (paperback).
* Engineering Department, Traffic and Transportation Division, "Study : 20th Avenue N.E. bridge closure". Seattle, WA: The Dept. [sic] , 1975.
* cite book
last =Dorpat
first =Paul
authorlink =
coauthors =
editor =
year = 1994
title =Seattle, now & then (2d edition of vol. I of III)
accessdate =2006-08-06
publisher =Tartu Publications
location =Seattle
id =ISBN 0-9614357-0-4, ISBN 0-9614357-1-2 (pbk.)
pages =
chapter =ch. 42
*
Dorpat referenced "Seattle: Now and Then Vols. 1, 2, and 3". Seattle: Tartu Publications, 1984, 1988);
Walt Crowley and Paul Dorpat, "The Ave: Streetcars to Street Fairs", typescript dated 1995 in possession of Walt Crowley and Paul Dorpat, Seattle, Washington;
Walt Crowley, "Rites of Passage". Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1995;
"Cal McCune, From Romance to Riot: A Seattle Memoir". Seattle: Cal McCune, 1996;
Roy Nielsen, "UniverCity: The City Within City: The Story of the University District" Seattle: University Lions Foundation, ca. 1986;
Clark Humphrey, "Loser: the Real Seattle Music Story". Portland, OR: Feral House, 1995.
*
*
*
Updated at cite news | first = | last = | author = | coauthors = | url=http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/webtowns/article.asp?WTID=33&ID=107889 | title ="From middle-class houses to mansions" | work = | publisher =Seattle Post-Intelligencer | pages = | page = |date=n.d. | accessdate =2006-04-21
"The Neighbors project was published weekly in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer from 1996 to 2000. This page remains available for archival purposes only and the information it contains may be outdated. For more updated information, please visit our [http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/webtowns/ Webtowns] section."
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
See also [http://www.seattle.gov/transportation/streetclassmaps.htm#pdfnote pdf note] .
*
[http://www.seattle.gov/transportation/streetclassmaps/plan.pdf High-Resolution Version] , PDF format, 16.1 MB
[http://www.seattle.gov/transportation/streetclassmaps/planweb.pdf Medium-Resolution Version] , PDF format, 1.45 MB 12 January 2004.
[http://www.seattle.gov/transportation/streetclassmaps/planwebsmall.pdf Low-Resolution Version] , PDF format, 825 KB 12 January 2004.
[http://www.seattle.gov/transportation/streetclassmaps/arterialslegend.pdf "Planned Arterials Map Legend Definitions"] , PDF format. 12 January 2004.
The high resolution version is good for printing, 11 x 17. The low and medium resolution versions are good for quicker online vewing. [Source: [http://www.seattle.gov/transportation/streetclassmaps.htm#pdfnote "Street Classification Maps, Note on Accessing These PDF Files"] ]
*
Note caveat in footer.
Maps "NN-1030S", "NN-1040S".jpgdated 17 June, 2002.
*
*
* cite book
last =Van Pelt
first =Robert
authorlink =
coauthors =
editor =
year =2001
title =Forest giants of the Pacific Coast
accessdate =
publisher =Global Forest Society in association with University of Washington Press
location =Vancouver and San Francisco
id =ISBN 0-295-98140-7
pages =pp. xxii, 181–185, 187–191
chapter =
*
*
Wilma referenced "Calvary Cemetery", Historylink Metropedia Library (www.Historylink.org);
"Ravenna Post Office", Historylink Timeline Library (www.Historylink.org);
"City of Seattle Annexes Town of Ravenna", Ibid.;
"Methodists Form Congregation in Ravenna Neighborhood", Ibid.;
"University District", "Historylink Magic Lantern Library" (www.Historylink.org);
Keming Kuo, "Beautiful Trees Cut To 'Line Someone's Pocket'", The Seattle Times, 29 June 1977;
"Removal of Trees Protested", Ibid., 23 November 1926;
"Removal of Giant Trees Would Be Crime", Ibid., 4 November 1926;
"Roosevelt Park Again Ravenna", ibid., 29 May 1931;
"Sears To Close Roosevelt Store", > Ibid., 1 November 1979;
Shareen Singh, "Area's Metaphysical Bent Is Well Known", "Seattle Post-Intelligencer", 12 September 1998, Neighbors (project 1996-2000);
Margaret Pitcairn Strachan, "Roosevelt-Ravenna Are Bustling Areas", The Seattle Sunday Times, 7 July 1946, p. 5;
Seattle School Histories, 1869-1974 ed. by Sara Levant (Seattle: Seattle Public Schools, 1974).

Further reading

*
Image of Ravenna Park and the greater University District to Union Bay-Portage Bay.
*
*
"with additions by Sunny Walter and local Audubon chapters."
Viewing locations only; the book has walks, hikes, wildlife, and natural wonders.
Walter excerpted from
** cite book | last =Dolan | first =Maria | authorlink = | coauthors =True, Kathryn | year =2003 | title =Nature in the city: Seattle | accessdate = | publisher =Mountaineers Books | location =Seattle | id =ISBN 0-89886-879-3 (paperback) | pages = | chapter =
See "Northeast Seattle" section. Particularly useful.