Buster Simpson’s Plantings First in a series of occasional photo essays As we slide out of summer, let’s have a look at some of Leschi’s distinguished trees. Seattle has about 730 different kinds of street trees, which is to say, trees planted along a street right-of-way. This does not include trees in parks or on private property, categories we’ll also look at in coming articles. And I write “planted” advisedly: the last remaining original tree downtown was cut in 1879, and

March 28th was the first day that light rail transit began public service. It also was a day that cleared up a major life history issue for me. In 1980, a group of activists that opposed the official design of the expansion of the I-90 crossing of Lake Washington submitted over 27,000 petition signatures (we only needed 19,000 to qualify) for Seattle Initiative 21—which provided for a way to build transit and have fewer car lanes across the bridge through a federal highway pr

Late in the nineteenth century, the desirable part of the neighborhood later to be called Leschi was on the precipice of Mount Baker Ridge, then known as Rainier Heights. That was considered to be the best view property. People of some means built their homes there, especially along 30th Avenue South, which was called Rainier Street until Seattle’s comprehensive street renaming of 1895. Some of those fine, large structures remain to this day, among them the one now known as J

More than 75 neighbors filled the room at the February Leschi Community Council meeting to hear from Stephanie Johnson-Tolliver, President of the Black Heritage Society of Washington State (BHS), for a powerful and informative lecture on preserving Black history in Seattle’s Central District—a history she emphasized includes Leschi. Johnson-Tolliver introduced herself as a fourth-generation Seattleite, noting that her family moved to the area in 1903. She grounded her talk in

June 25 marks the 100th birthday of Robert Hilliard, a key figure in the establishment of public broadcasting in the United States. He...

Did you know that the Douglass-Truth Library at 23rd and Yesler houses “one of the largest collections of African American literature and...

Landslides in Leschi, Part 2 Early 20th century slides and the city’s prevention efforts In late November 1909, residents from 32nd and...

Early in the 20th century, the Massachusetts-based Olmsted Brothers landscape design firm, designer of New York City’s Central Park and...

February was Black History Month. Instead of tackling the interesting and rich history of our Black neighbors, here is an overview of one...

The Army Camp: A Researcher’s Odyssey Part 3 Soon after my second search through school district papers for references to the army camp...

The Army Camp: A Researcher’s Odyssey Part 1 Before the present-day Powell Barnett Park in Leschi was acquired by Seattle’s park...

Shiro Kashino (1922-1997) I first learned of Shiro “Kash” Kashino while researching the life of the Filipino immigrant and labor activist...