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Where is Green Lake?

What do you think? (17 Comments) October 10, 2009 at 4:45PM

You know how you’ll sometimes see a listing for three bedroom house in Green Lake, priced at $350K?  You get all confused, click on the listing, and then realize that it’s on North 97th Street? Or, your buddy claims that Tangletown is really Wallingford, not Green Lake? So, you start asking around and get all sorts of different opinions?

Yeah, happens a lot. WTF counts as Green Lake, anyway?

Hmmmmmm, let’s see. There are a few different takes on the matter.  From least to most inclusive:

  • The Seattle City Clerk’s Neighborhood Map Atlas and Zillow: north to 85th, east to I-5, south to 60th, west to Aurora/edge of lake. [No Tangletown, no Woodland Park]


  • Redfin: north to 85th, east to I-5, south to 60th, west to Aurora, jutting out to include the zoo and Woodland Park.  [No Tangletown]


  • Wikipedia: north to 85th, east to I-5, west to Aurora, south to 50th, including Woodland Park.

    • Green Lake depth contour map, 1938

    Green Lake depth contour map, 1938
    Creative Commons License
    photo credit: Seattle Municipal Archives


    You know, in the end, it all seems so … territorial. We’ve decided that lines on a map can be damned, and we’re going with Ardell:

    Anyone who can wake up in the morning and walk over to, and around Green Lake’s 4.5 kilometer path, lives AT and IN “Green Lake”. A neighborhood is first and foremost, it’s lifestyle, and not the oddball street breakdowns the so-called experts attribute to being “the Green Lake neighborhood”.

    [ARDELL]

    With this spirit in mind, we are claiming a vague donut around the lake … up to 85th-ish, over to I-5-ish, down through Tangletown-ish, across Woodland Park and the zoo, and over Aurora until you start having to really hike up the Ridge.

    xox

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    What do you think? (17 Comments)
    • Pennie O'Grady

      In the same spirit, we at Sustainable Green Lake welcome members who feel a strong connection to the Green Lake neighborhood, whether folks live here, play here or work here. And we don't kick people out who live west of Aurora!

    • Pennie O'Grady

      In the same spirit, we at Sustainable Green Lake welcome members who feel a strong connection to the Green Lake neighborhood, whether folks live here, play here or work here. And we don't kick people out who live west of Aurora!

    • Pennie O'Grady

      In the same spirit, we at Sustainable Green Lake welcome members who feel a strong connection to the Green Lake neighborhood, whether folks live here, play here or work here. And we don't kick people out who live west of Aurora!

    • Pennie O'Grady

      In the same spirit, we at Sustainable Green Lake welcome members who feel a strong connection to the Green Lake neighborhood, whether folks live here, play here or work here. And we don't kick people out who live west of Aurora!

    • Pennie O'Grady

      In the same spirit, we at Sustainable Green Lake welcome members who feel a strong connection to the Green Lake neighborhood, whether folks live here, play here or work here. And we don't kick people out who live west of Aurora!

    • Pennie O'Grady

      In the same spirit, we at Sustainable Green Lake welcome members who feel a strong connection to the Green Lake neighborhood, whether folks live here, play here or work here. And we don't kick people out who live west of Aurora!

    • seattlealan

      I hope that living in the area since '64 counts. It seems not to count to all the newbies that have moved in and decided to call any neighborhood whatever they want. Some people couldn't figure out what neighborhood they moved into (could have just asked someone that lived there longer than 10 years).
      The whole “Tangletown” area has been and is a part of Wallingford as long as I have lived here, originally at 54th & 1st. The Zoka Coffee Shop started a “Tangletown” coffee blend and the Elysian picked it up as a neat name from who-knows-when (I know some newbie will let me know) for their new restaurant. And all the newbies picked it up 'cause there was a big sign on the building. Tangletown is dumb – that area is just a northern part of Wallingford. Refer to the maps of neighborhoods on the City Clerks page in the City of Seattle pages at:
      http://clerk.ci.seattle.wa.us/~public/nmaps/nei…
      You can call your neighborhood whatever you want, by what you identify with, where you go for coffee or whatever, but it doesn't change the facts. History has it. In this area (until Lincoln High was closed 'cause the city didn't have the money to bring it up to code), kids south of 60th went to Lincoln and north of 60th went to Roosevelt.
      So, you could live in Gradywood or Ardell Heights, it doesn't change really where you really live.

    • mygreenlake

      Heya Alan,

      Thanks Thanks Thanks for commenting. We sincerely hope that you keep reading and sharing your thoughts (although it sounds like you are a staunch Wallyhooder!). Your historical perspective is really appreciated, and any tidbits from back in the day that you (or any other pre-dot-commers) would like to share would surely be enjoyed by all.

      If you'll put up with a bit of ribbing, try this on for size: Until 1911, Green Lake’s shoreline reached to Fifty-fourth Street (your old street!) on the south end. So, as you say, History has it, and maybe John Olmsted would be calling ya a newbie. :)

      Thanks again Alan – don't be a stranger

      - amy+madi
      my green lake

    • seattlealan

      Hi, amy+madi,
      Ah, so now you’re breaking us into blog-cultists, hmmmm?
      Well, I’m a Wallingford neighborhood resident, but happen to follow “Wallyhood”, though I wouldn’t drink the Kool-Aid if Jordan offered it. I also follow your blog, ‘cause you’re a neighborhood just north of Wallingford and there is a lot of neat stuff going on in the neighborhood north of us (and you two are pretty good at writing about it).
      I went to elementary school in the Wallingford neighborhood (F. A. McDonald on 54th & Latona), Junior High (not middle school) in the Green Lake neighborhood (John Marshall on Ravenna Blvd) and High School in the Wallingford neighborhood (Lincoln High over on Interlake). We did live in the Green Lake neighborhood for a year, over on 4th just a ½ block from the Green Lake Albertsons (yep, that long ago).
      Your reference to Green Lake’s shore going all the way to 54th would have, of course, just covered the soccer and ball fields along Green Lake Way N… not up the hill on 54th & 1st NE where I grew up – you could call the soccer & ball fields Green Lake.
      I don’t know why there is a resistance to having actual real boundaries, but if you want to annex a block or two, what the heck, we’re all good enough, we’re smart enough and doggone it, people like us!!
      Your neighbor,
      SeattleAlan

    • mygreenlake

      SeattleAlan – ah, good point … we forgot that water doesn't travel uphill. :)

      Oh no, last intention ever would be to create Wallyhood/MyGreenLake factions. Jordan had us at hello.

    • SeattleAlan

      Hi, amy+madi,
      Ah, so now you’re breaking us into blog-cultists, hmmmm?
      Well, I’m a Wallingford neighborhood resident, but happen to follow “Wallyhood”, though I wouldn’t drink the Kool-Aid if Jordan offered it. I also follow your blog, ‘cause you’re a neighborhood just north of Wallingford and there is a lot of neat stuff going on in the neighborhood north of us (and you two are pretty good at writing about it).
      I went to elementary school in the Wallingford neighborhood (F. A. McDonald on 54th & Latona), Junior High (not middle school) in the Green Lake neighborhood (John Marshall on Ravenna Blvd) and High School in the Wallingford neighborhood (Lincoln High over on Interlake). We did live in the Green Lake neighborhood for a year, over on 4th just a ½ block from the Green Lake Albertsons (yep, that long ago).
      Your reference to Green Lake’s shore going all the way to 54th would have, of course, just covered the soccer and ball fields along Green Lake Way N… not up the hill on 54th & 1st NE where I grew up – you could call the soccer & ball fields Green Lake.
      I don’t know why there is a resistance to having actual real boundaries, but if you want to annex a block or two, what the heck, we’re all good enough, we’re smart enough and doggone it, people like us!!
      Your neighbor,
      SeattleAlan

    • mygreenlake

      SeattleAlan – ah, good point … we forgot that water doesn't travel uphill. :)

      Oh no, last intention ever would be to create Wallyhood/MyGreenLake factions. Jordan had us at hello.