(Image: Seattle Parks)
The 1955-built A-frame style house at the center of the Capitol Hill historical district property lined up to become a new city park will be considered for landmarks protections that will shape how the structure will be utilized in the new public space.
Last week, the Seattle Landmarks Board unanimously moved the nomination of the Bullitt HouseĀ forward in a 7-0 vote. Continue reading
As the process to turn the Bullitt property’s 1.6 acres of North Capitol Hill land into a city park slowly moves forward, the family’s 1955 A-frame house will be considered for landmarks protections.
Seattle’s Landmarks Preservation Board will consider the nomination of the Bullitt House on June 7th.
The land and 68-year-old home on the property left to the city after the death of philanthropist Kay BullittĀ stretches out on the northwest slopes of Capitol Hill in the prestigiousĀ Harvard-Belmont Landmark District. Continue reading
A new sketch for the planned park (Image: Seattle Parks)
A new Harvard Ave E park is currently in the planning phase and a new, early design concept has been presented to the public.
Susanne Rockwell, senior planner with Seattle Parks and Recreation is working on figuring out how to best create a space where people can gather and stroll in nature while incorporating historical elements into the current park design.
Since the park space is located in one of the most affluent neighborhoods in Seattle, it is not considered a community of need. The park is eight to 16 years away from having park district funding directly allocated for this site so Seattle Parks is hoping to create private-public partnerships to raise the money needed to create the new public space.
This land has been donated to the city for public use. Rockwell hopes that with the new park, it is open for everyone to enjoy.
āOur parks are open to everyone regardless of sexual orientation or home ownership or where you come from, you are welcome and they are open to everybody.ā Rockwell said.
Some neighbors in the area are worried about an increase of crime or encampments that could occur with having a park near them. Continue reading
The property from above in the summer of 2022
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The 1125 Harvard Ave E project will meet its next major milestone Saturday with a community meeting to unveil the proposal held at Volunteer Park’s Asian Art Museum:
125 Harvard Ave E Park Public Design Meeting
Sat, Oct 15, 2022 , 10:00am-11:30am
Seattle Asian Art Museum, Alvord Boardroom 1400 E Prospect
The 1.6 acres of land and 1955-built home on the property left to the city after the death of philanthropist Kay Bullitt stretches out on the northwest slopes of Capitol Hill in the prestigious Harvard-Belmont Landmark District.
CHS reported here on the early planning for the project including a survey that planners said showed preferences for developing the new park land “as a quiet, contemplative place” while making space for theĀ Cass Turnbull GardenĀ as part of the site, a project from Seattle nonprofitĀ Plant Amnesty honoring its late founder.
A plan must also be shaped for the 1955-built Bullitt residence ā āa unique A-frame houseā designed by Pacific Northwest architectĀ Fred BassettiĀ that stands on the property. The one and a half story, 3,400-square-foot open design home must be structurally assessed and could be worthy of historical protections while remaining a centerpiece of the new park.
The full Seattle Parks document including survey responses and answers submitted by community members about the planned park is below: Continue reading
For most respondents, a new Capitol Hill park at 1125 Harvard Ave E would be a 10 to 20 minute walk and have strolling paths, an open lawn, and would be a special place to picnic or wander through speciality gardens.
There probably would not be pickleball courts.
The Seattle Parks and Recreation process to shape the Kay Bullitt property in the northwest of Capitol Hill as a new public park is moving forward after a community survey and early August meeting at the site of the 1.6 acres left to the city by the philanthropist at her 2021 death.
CHS stopped through the August 3rd meeting and tour on the property as the city works 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 Hillās northern mansions and the overgrown greenbelt surrounding St. Markās Cathedral.
Most attendees had never been on the property before. Continue reading
“Police have closed the road at Harvard and Prospect. Neighbors saying there were two cars shooting at each other on this block. No injuries. Police investigating”Ā (Image: @whocanstandit via Twitter)There were no injuries and no arrests in a Saturday afternoon bout of gunfire and road rage incidents on the usually quiet streets of North Capitol Hill west of Volunteer Park.
According to East Precinct radio updates, a series of road rage calls and hit and run collisions began on Belmont just after 2 PM and continued with gunfire reported near Prospect and Harvard and a hit and run and road rage incident at Broadway and Roy. Continue reading
A view of the Cass Turnbull Garden (Image: Plant Amnesty)
Kay Bullitt
On the Capitol Hill of the future, the Bullitt name will evoke ideals of environmental conservation, public space in the shape of a northern Capitol Hill park, and gardens — in its past, a legacy of lumber and broadcasting, and a remarkable Capitol Hill resident who used her family fortune to support “a dizzying array of causes spanning education, racial justice, international relations, politics, historic-landmark preservation and the arts.
It’s a legacy strong enough to create something nearly impossible on an increasingly packed Capitol Hill — a new park. Continue reading
By Tim Kukes for CHS
The Rainier Chapter House in the Harvard-Belmont District of Capitol Hill, the meeting hall for the Rainier Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, was built in 1925. Ā This spring, it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Thatās not just something that just happens. Someone must care, and someone must do the work.
āWeāve been talking about it for a few years. Ā Our current regent ā regent is kind of the top person of the chapter, runs the meetings and whatnot ā she just kind of put it into full throttle last July,ā said Diana Prigger, 1st Vice Regent of the Rainier Chapter.
The process is time consuming and involves a lot of documentation. Ā At one time the nomination form was 41 pages, according to Cindy Johnson-Sakuma, Regent of the Rainier Chapter. They managed to cut it down to 31 pages.
āWhen you first look at it you think, āoh, well, this is no problem,ā and it kind of like just grows,ā Johnson-Sakuma said. Continue reading
Two times a week, its legal protection team visits many of the some 200 immigrant women — most mothers separated from their children —Ā currently held in the SeaTac Federal Detention Center.
“This is something we work on every single day,” Roberto Dondisch,Ā general consul at the Consulate of Mexico in Seattle, tells CHS.
But like many efforts at the consulate, the team’s work is not about politics or trying to change Trump administration policies. Instead the team checks in on the women’s well-being, helps connect them to lawyers and organizations that can help, and is there to make sure its citizens retain their human rights.
“We are very active,” Dondisch said. “Everybody has the right to ask for protection.” Continue reading
Kerry Hall East Elevation (Image: John Feit)
One of my favorite Capitol Hill buildings is Kerry Hall, home of Cornish College for the Arts’s Dance and Music departments, on the corner of Harvard Ave E and E Roy. The sole extant building of Cornish’s original Capitol Hill campus, Kerry Hall was built in 1921 in the Spanish Colonial Revival style and was designed by Seattle architect A. H. Albertson. Its Mediterranean-inspired design reminds me of the work one of my favorite American architects, Irving Gill, as well as one of my favorite buildings, the Dogeās Palace on the Venetian Lagoon, in Venice, Italy. Kerry Hall is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Continue reading
