Post navigation

Prev: (07/05/22) | Next: (07/05/22)

‘Coming Soon — Cayton Corner Park’ — In the works for more than a decade, plan for tiny park between Capitol Hill and Central District moving forward

A message at Cayton Corner… in 2015

With work gearing up to create a new park on North Capitol Hill around the former home of the late philanthropist Kay Bullitt, the now decade-long process to turn a 4,500-square-foot triangle of land along E Madison into a new city park at the border of Capitol Hill and the Central District honoring the area’s Black history is finally nearing construction.

City construction permit paperwork is moving again this summer for the work needed to build “seating, retaining walls and terracing, garden beds, art walls, paths and an open lawn area” at Cayton Corner, a wedge of public land across the street from the Mount Zion Baptist Church and snuggling up against the Hearing Speech and Deafness Center.

Early plans for the design included a sensory garden, ADA accessible pathways, and an embankment slide.

The land was purchased by Seattle Parks and Recreation in 2011. In 2015, CHS reported on hopes that funding through grants and giving would be in place to have the park built by 2017. The park was named in 2013 to honor a vital Black Seattle newspaper publisher.

In the time since, 14th Ave E’s Cayton-Revels House has become a city protected landmark to honor Horace Roscoe Cayton, publisher of Seattle Black-owned newspaper the Seattle Republican, and his wife and associate editor Susie Sumner Revels Cayton.

In 2018, CHS reported on the long path toward creating and raising the funds needed to design and construction Cayton Corner Park. Four years later, that path has become longer still with the project further delayed by the pandemic.

But city records show permit work is now underway and the community group formed to help shape the park is continuing its fundraising efforts. Design work for the project cost around $160,000, according to the city with construction expected to come in at more than $200,000. A Seattle Neighborhood Matching Fund grant is hoped to help boost community giving to hit the goal.

The city had been planning a 2021 construction schedule for the park — obviously, that timeline needs to be updated.

Corporate and private giving helped boost the latest Seattle Parks resource to be added to the Capitol Hill area’s rich collection. Volunteer Park’s new $3 million amphitheater that debuted over the weekend depended on donors including corporate support from Amazon and some local celebrities including Tricia Davis and Ben Haggerty, plus dozens of smaller donors who contributed to support the project.

The summer will also involve the start of community planning to shape a new city park on the 1.6 acre property at Harvard Ave E at E Prospect on the northeast slopes of Capitol Hill above I-5 left to the city by philanthropist Kay Bullitt at her 2021 death. A survey has been launched and public meetings are coming.

Cayton Corner, meanwhile, still remains empty more than a decade after its 2011 acquisition. The community’s care of the space has ebbed and flowed over the years with the space being used for occasional gatherings and, during the pandemic, an encampment that has since been cleared.

Today, the empty lot sits along the busy construction zone most of E Madison has been turned into to build the new RapidRide G bus line between Elliott Bay and Madison Valley. Seattle Parks says it is working with the Seattle Department of Transportation to “further improve the right-of-way along Madison and adjacent park features is on-going.”

There is hope the new public park space will be ready when the overhauled transit corridor is completed in 2024.

The planned park is located at 1831 E Madison. You can learn more at seattle.gov.

 

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.

 

 
Subscribe and support CHS Contributors -- $1/$5/$10 per month

1 Comment
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
dave
dave
1 year ago

cool!