The park at 7th Avenue S and S Cloverdale Street in the South Park neighborhood, formerly named after Cesar Chavez, finally has a new name: Parque Libertad. According to The Seattle Times: One wonders…

This West Seattle street was created in 1937 as part of Forest View Tracts, an addition to the City of Seattle. At the time, it truly was in the middle of the forest, and still today Fauntleroy Park…

This West Seattle street was created in 1911 as part of the plat of Fauntleroy, an Addition to Seattle, and named for the nearby Brace Point. According to HistoryLink.org, Brace Point was itself named...

This West Seattle street was created in 1936 as Ocean View Way, part of the plat of Ocean View Addition to the City of Seattle. Even though the Pacific Ocean is 92 miles to the west, as the crow flies...

This West Seattle street was created in 1941 as part of Allan MacLean’s 1st Add’n to the City of Seattle, filed by Allan and Nellie MacLean; H.S. and Marie A. Kelsey; and, on behalf of Carroll Hillman...

The dean of Seattle local historians, Paul Dorpat, has died. Below is the obituary on his own site, written by longtime collaborators Jean Sherrard and Clay Eals. I had the good fortune to make his…

This street, created in 1931, was almost certainly named for Camano Island (known as ʔəw̓alus in Lushootseed), which is located, as Wikipedia tells us, in Puget Sound “between Whidbey Island and the…

This West Seattle street was created in 1946 by Ordinance 75595 and expanded nearly 40 years later by Ordinance 112188. However, it was named after an earlier Parshall Place, created in 1909 as part…

This West Seattle street was created in 1920 as part of Homecroft, an Addition to the City of Seattle, filed by the Puget Mill Company, who once owned Washington Park (see Arboretum Drive E)…

This short Montlake street, which runs just over 150 feet from E Roanoke Street between 24th and 25th Avenues E in the south to the alley to the north, was created in 1925 as part of the plat of…

This street was created in 1955 as part of the plat of the Lowrain Park Addition, filed by A.L. Wood and J.E. Wood of Lowrain Park, Inc. Their full names would appear to be Adlai Lorain Wood (1891…

This street was created in 1919 as part of the plat of the Loch-Gilvra Addition to the City of Seattle, filed by Oliver C. McGilvra (1867–1955) and Charles L. Denny (1861–1919) as executors of the…

This street was created in 1907 as part of Tronstad’s Addition to the City of Seattle, filed by Norwegian immigrants Nils and Bertha Tronstad and another couple. It appears to have been named after…

Thanks to “Operation Metro Surge” in Minnesota, the Insurrection Act of 1807 has been in the news lately. Today I learned that, of the 30 times the act has been invoked, two of them were in Seattle…

This street was named in 1906 as Raymond Avenue, part of Replat Tracts 30 & 31 Sunnyside 5 Acre Tracts, by Herbert R. Raymond (1862–1933) of New Brunswick, Canada, and his wife, Minnie M.

YouTube video by GeorgeHarrisonVEVO

This portion of E Olive Street was renamed E Olive Lane by Ordinance 100274 in 1971. It is unclear why. For some reason, as the quarter section map shows, the name change wasn’t extended into the…

This street was established in 1926 as part of North Beach, an Addition to the City of Seattle, which overlooks Puget Sound. Just as my assumption is NW Neptune Place was so named because Neptune is…

The Talaris property in Seattle has been the subject of debate over how it should be developed for decades.

This street was named as part of the 1907 plat of Loyal Heights, filed by Edward B. Cox and Harry Whitney Treat, and Treat’s wife, Olive Marion Graef Treat. Then, as now, the lots abutted a wooded (“s...

This street was named in 1923 by Ordinance 45722, which provided that: That certain alley in the City of Seattle, being the alley in Block one (1), Yesler & McGilvra Addition, running from East Howell...

This street was created in two stages: the southern portion of this street in 1971 as 25th Avenue S, part of the plat of Beacon Vista; the northern portion in 1976, part of Goodwin's Addition. A year ...

This West Seattle street was created in 1909 as part of the Replat of Blocks 2, 5, and 6, Lincoln Beach Park. Based on its proximity to the Gatewood Acre Tracts and Gatewood Gardens subdivisions, it w...

Welcome to Writes of Way! I’m Benjamin Lukoff, a local historian born, raised, and living in Seattle. As I write in my inaugural post, I’ve been an “address nerd” since I was very young, and a major c...