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Harvard Ave E at E Prospect from above
The Cass Turnbull Garden already calls the property home. How it fits into the plans for the future park will be part of the process (Image: Cass Turnbull Garden)
There was a time when we thought Broadway Hill Park would be the last of its kind — 12,000 square feet of grass, benches, community gardening space, and a BBQ grill in the middle of Capitol Hill.
There is another.
The Seattle Parks department has started the public planning process to reshape the 1.6 acre property left to the city by philanthropist Kay Bullitt at her 2021 death as a new city park. A survey has been launched and public meetings are coming.
The path to create the park will not be straight. The city must now navigate the “unique opportunity” to transform a private Capitol Hill yard already promised and in use as a community garden space into a public park serving communities far beyond Capitol Hill’s northern mansions and the overgrown greenbelt surrounding St. Mark’s Cathedral. Landmarks considerations and the city’s ongoing homelessness crisis and recent park sweeps will also shape the conversation.
Given the importance of the land at Harvard Ave E at E Prospect on the northeast slopes of Capitol Hill above I-5, it might not be surprising there is already a vision for its place in the community.
In recent years, work has been underway to design and create the Cass Turnbull Garden as part of the site, a project from Seattle nonprofit Plant Amnesty honoring its late founder.
“As we move forward with bringing this site into [Seattle Parks and Recreations’] inventory, we recognize that there are key factors in transitioning this site from being a private yard and garden to being under public ownership,” the department’s announcement on the start of the planning process reads. “We appreciate your input on the survey and invite you to join us as we launch a full, inclusive public engagement process and conversation about the future park design and intent.”
Take the 1125 Harvard Ave E survey
The first phase of the 1125 Harvard Ave E project will focus on community engagement to develop “concept level/early” design plans for the public park on property covering twelve city lots.
A planning survey is now collecting feedback with questions focused on “hopes or worries” about a new park at the location and polls on what features you might like to see there including “open lawns,” “strolling paths,” “active recreation” facilities like basketball or tennis courts, and “beautiful or specialty gardens.”
Parks says the goal of the first phase is to establish “a vision for the park” and create an “early schematic design.” Planners led by Karen Kiest Landscape Architecture will also hope to sketch out a “rough order of magnitude cost estimate.” Officials said the project could then be included in the next round of the Seattle Park District funding.
A plan must also be shaped for the 1955-built Bullitt residence — “a unique A-frame house” designed by Pacific Northwest architect Fred Bassetti. The one and a half story, 3,400-square-foot open design home must be structurally assessed and could be considered for landmarks protections. The structure could remain a centerpiece of the new park.
The city’s ongoing homelessness crisis and concerns about people living unsheltered and under housed in the city will also loom large in the discussion. Seattle City Hall has been reluctant to add park resources or features that could help address the crisis or provide space for mutual aid groups including community discussions that began in the wake of CHOP that called for increased services and outreach, or resources like phone charging stations and rain shelters for mutual aid providers. Meanwhile, grassroots mutual aid efforts continue to utilize the public spaces even as sweeps have become more surgical and more frequent.
The community engagement process and Seattle Parks plan for 1125 Harvard Ave E must also set the path for the Cass Turnbull Garden. Planned and partially built by the nonprofit and community efforts, the garden could also become a centerpiece to any new park. But that’s not guaranteed.
You can expect supporters of the Cass Garden effort to be a strong voice in what comes next.
“Clearly, we had hoped for a much faster timeline… and greater assurance that none of what we have created will be ‘undone,'” an update do the garden’s supporters from March reads. “We are understandably somewhat frustrated, but Plant Amnesty and other friends of the Cass Garden have no control over these processes or their timeline. However, we do have the opportunity to voice our strong support for the garden and the features we like—both what is in place already and what is planned—during the public engagement process.”
Seattle Parks, meanwhile, has reduced the garden group’s presence at the site including restricting tours and putting visits to the garden on hiatus now that the park development process has begun.
The path to Seattle ownership for the land is rather circular, the city says:
In the mid-1930’s the property at 1125 Harvard Ave E. was given to the City of Seattle by the Henry family for a future library. At that time the City did not want a library at this location, so the City demolished the original Henry house and sold the property to the Bloedel family who lived next door. Mr. Henry’s art collection, stored above the garage, was donated to the University of Washington, and now comprises the Henry Art Gallery. In the early-1950’s the property was purchased from the Bloedel family by the Bullitt family, and became the future home for newlyweds, Stimson and Katharine (Kay) Bullitt. Over the years, Kay was known for inviting the community into her garden for Wednesday night picnics and hosted many day camps for children from all walks of life. In 1972, Stimson and Kay Bullitt generously gave the 1.6 acre property to the City of Seattle for a future park.
50 years ago, the property was deeded to the city “for future park purposes, effective upon vacation of the property by the owner” as a life estate, ownership that allowed the family to reside on the property after it had been conveyed to Seattle Parks. Kay Bullitt lived in the house until passing away in August 2021.
Neighbors in the area have already been enjoying the property. On Wednesdays, the Bullitt family was said to host community picnics and sometimes open the yard “as an off-leash area for neighborhood canines and their human companions.”
In addition to the survey, Seattle Parks says it hopes to hold some of the “public engagement events” on the Harvard Ave E site, “most likely on Wednesday evenings this summer in part to honor Kay’s gathering events.”
1125 Harvard Avenue East Schedule
Planning:
• Initial Survey launch – June 2022
• Concept design meeting – July/August 2022
• Concept/early Schematic design meeting – September/October 2022
* Please note that public meetings may be held in a virtual form depending on health restrictions.
Design: To be determined
Construction: To be determined
Take the survey and learn more at seattle.gov/parks/about-us/projects/1125-harvard-avenue-east.
PLEASE HELP KEEP CHS PAYWALL-FREE!
Subscribe to CHS to help us pay writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for as little as $5 a month.
Parks are great – but I think the first priority needs to be that there are 0 (zero) tents in them. Ever.
Public spaces belong to everyone, not a single person who claims that space as theirs, and starts living there.
So, first, remove all tents, ensure not a single tent ever comes back, and then yeah, let’s do more and more and more parks!
The prioritize putting people into homes first
Prioritize putting people that have refused services, choosing instead to homestead in public spaces, steal, and do drugs, into congregate shelter, drug treatment, mental hospitals, and in some cases, jail. Strictly enforce a no camping policy. Many will move on to another city that doesn’t hassle them (Portland) once Seattle gets a backbone. The Housing First model as applied in Seattle is a failure and a grift. There is no amount of money that could allow Seattle to provide a free apartment with no rules (and keep them from burning down) for every drug addict that has migrated here from across the country. The more we try, the more that will come. This city is sinking because of the absurdly permissive policies.
Not being able to afford a home in Seattle doesn’t give someone the right to take over and trash our public spaces.
It is a shame that she left it to the Seattle Parks Department rather than a foundation that could have operated it privately as a public accessible gardens. The Parks Department isn’t up to the task of maintaining functional public spaces. The only model that could potentially work would be to operate it like Kubota Gardens. Gate it and have security on site at night to keep the drug addicts and anarchists/mutual aid from turning it to sh*!.
Hard to be excited about a new park when Broadway Hill is an unkempt dump full of screaming and struggling people.
At the moment Broadway Hill Park is free of encampments, thanks to a city cleanup recently. But probably this will not last.
What a lovely gift from the Henrys and then later, The Bullitts. We look forward to a lively debate about what will happen next but are THRILLED for more green space. Balancing humans & plants so that we all have a new place to gather & relax. Excited.
It will be such a shame if this becomes yet another encampment like others on Capitol Hill. What can the city tell us to ensure that won’t happen? If the city won’t commit to enforcing the laws, this whole planning process is a complete farce.
I still cannot believe the generosity of Kay and Stimson Bullitt in gifting this valuable property to the citizens of Seattle. It would be a travesty, and disrespectful to their legacy, if it turns into a homeless encampment.
the sad truth in Seattle today is that city-owned property is a liability because they allow open drug scenes, criminal activity and fires. Mutual aid is responsible for trash and graffiti proliferation.
Seattle is the only city I can think of where living near a park is a liability. The city is finally getting its act together under Mayor Harrell’s leadership, but it is a long way out of the hole dug by whacko progressive ideologues that decriminalized crime and let drug addicts and anarchists homestead in public spaces.
What’s also disappointing about this article is that it barely mentions how it was most often and consistently shared with the neighborhood by Kay. It was not just “sometimes” open as an off-leash area but was open virtually every day to neighborhood canines (with a self-monitored limit of 5 dogs at a time that worked really well). It only ever seemed to be closed to dogs if Kay was having a private event or the Plant Amnesty volunteers were there or the yard was particularly boggy after lots of rain. And this was true until Kay passed away last August. It was well loved and cared for by all of the dog owners in the neighborhood who frequented it because it was the ONLY off-leash option anywhere on the hill aside from the depressing and super sketchy one under the freeway. For everyone who is concerned about this park becoming another homeless encampment, consider how an off-leash area would keep a steady stream of conscientious dog owners from the neighborhood and their dogs using the park every single day throughout the day and how that keeps it being actively used by many people who live in and care about the neighborhood. And, come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a tent pitched in an off-leash dog park.
It’s a great idea but likely DOA considering the wealthy homeowners surrounding that site. I can’t imagine they would allow the possibility of a Tashkent-like encampment in the area. P.S. The celebrity-home “Easter Egg” in that overhead photo is cool.
Luckily the poor outnumber the rich
Yeah, us poor hourly working non-tech wage earners, that live next to Tashkent, got to experience an active drug encampment and open garbage pit for two years. Us poor schlubs didn’t have the social capital to keep the park clear, safe, and usable for area residents. Some of us local poors didn’t agree to free range camping in public spaces.