Green Lake (Seattle)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Green Lake is a freshwater lake in north central Seattle, Washington, USA, within Green Lake Park. The park is surrounded by the Green Lake neighborhood to the north and east, the Wallingford neighborhood to the south, the Phinney Ridge neighborhood to the west, and Woodland Park to the southwest. It is a glacial lake, its basin having been dug 50,000 years ago by the Vashon glacier, which also created Lake Washington, Lake Union, and Bitter and Haller Lakes.
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[edit] History
Green Lake was named by David Phillips, who surveyed the area in September 1855 for the United States Surveyor General. His first notes referred to it as "Lake Green" because even in its natural state the lake is prone to algae blooms.
The lake has a surface area of 1 km², a mean depth of 3.8 meters, and a maximum depth of 9.1 meters. The lake has been dredged in order to maintain its depth. Green Lake lacks both surface water inflows and outflows. It once drained into Lake Washington via Ravenna Creek, but in 1911 the water level was lowered by 2.1 meters (7 feet) to create parkland, causing the creek to dry up between Green Lake and Cowen Park. The lake is fed by rainfall, storm runoff, and Seattle's municipal water supply.
The area was originally homesteaded by various pioneers, the first being Erhart Sarfried, "Green Lake John." Sarfried subdivided his homestead in 1888 and sold the land to various entrepreneurs. W.D. Wood built an "amusement park" on the west side of the lake (which never amounted to more than a glorified lawn for picnics). On the east side of the lake, A.L. Parker logged the woods and built a sawmill. Edward C. Kilbourne built the first trolley line connecting the area to the city, the route of which is now Green Lake Way North. The trolley lines kept growing, until by 1910 they extended completely around the lake and a round trip could be made on a separate line going back to the city.
[edit] Green Lake Park
After 1903 the area became part of Seattle's grand Olmsted Plan to create a series of interconnected greenspaces around the entire city. The park design still reflects the Olmsted vision.
Green Lake is surrounded entirely by a very popular paved path. The 4.5 kilometer path is divided into two lanes — one for pedestrians and one for bicycles, roller skates, and other wheeled unmotorized vehicles. The inner pedestrian lane is bidirectional, while the outer wheeled path is unidirectional (counterclockwise). The path is a major destination for people seeking exercise and can become quite crowded on days of fair weather. There is also an outer path along the edge of the park. The park is a popular spot for qigong classes, roller hockey, soccer, baseball, golf, and lawn bowls.
The bathhouse was built in 1927 next to an outdoor swimming area with concrete steps leading into the water. A lifeguard station and boat were built next to this area in 1930 after several drownings in 1929. The bathhouse is now home to the Seattle Public Theater at the Bathhouse, a small but popular venue for plays.
Across the lake from the bathhouse, in the northeast part of the park, its first community center was built in 1929 at a cost of $95,598. As it was built on the fill land from the 1911 draining, the community center was built on pilings. It contains two conference rooms, a gym with showers and bathrooms, and a stage. Toward the lake, another stepped swimming area was built. The tennis courts were added in 1945. In 1955 a 150,000 gallon swimming pool was added. It was named the Evans Pool in honor of two brothers, Ben and Lou Evans, for their long service to athletics at Seattle parks.
The children's wading pool was a Works Progress Administration project, as was the drainage ditch and the arched stone bridge providing a path over the ditch.
South of the bathhouse is a lawn and fishing pier. Since 1984 this part of the lake has hosted a floating lantern memorial to the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Prospect Point (a spit of land that points at Duck Island) protects a small area of water from high winds. This used to be a popular spot for model boats, though model boating is no longer allowed on the lake.
The Aqua Theater was built in 1950 for the first Seafair in order to house an attraction called the Aqua Follies and their "swimusicals"--a combination of aqua ballet, stage dancing, and comedy. The theater included a round stage and floating (though still recessed below the stage) orchestra pit, encircling a section of the lake with high diving platforms on each side. The grandstand was built to a capacity of more than 5,000 seats. The Aqua Follies continued to run during Seafair until 1965. Outside of the Seafair schedule the theater was the stage for plays and musicals whose directors always took advantage of the unique setting. In the summer of 1962, coinciding with the Century 21 Exposition, the Aqua Theater stage was host to a jazz festival, popular performers such as Bob Hope, two plays, and a special presentation of the Aqua Follies with 100 performers. After the World's Fair, summer productions languished (usually blamed on Seattle's unpredictable weather) until the Aqua Theater was mostly abandoned — a 1969 concert by the Grateful Dead revealed that the grandstand was crumbling and dangerous. Beginning in 1970 the theater was dismantled, stage right now serving as a pedestrian pier and stage left providing dock and storage for crew boats. Some sections of the grandstand were left in place.[1]
The southwest portion of the park connects with adjoining Woodland Park on land that is also mostly fill, much of which came from the excavation of a route for Aurora Avenue. The southwest portion of the lake once extended to what is now N. 54th Street.
In the summer, Green Lake is also popular for swimming and boating. Although public use of motorized boats has been banned since at least 1968, the lake was the site of hydroplane races from 1929 to 1984. Today many forms of motor-less boats, including sailboarding, pedal boats, rowboats, skiffs, and canoes, are commonly seen on the lake. The Milk Carton Derby is held annually on the lake as one of the opening events of Seafair. While remnants of boat launches still exist, all launches have been removed from the lake; all boats must be hand carried to the water.
[edit] Animal and plant life
Green Lake is a beacon for wildlife. Many types of wildlife, ducks, cormorants, herons, geese, turtles, raccoons, rats, squirrels, bats, hawks, eagles, and osprey are among the wild creatures commonly viewed there. There is an artificial island in the lake built by the Works Progress Administration in 1936. The island was built (with dumped gravel) as a wildlife sanctuary and later housed some swan gifted to the city by Vancouver, British Columbia. The state game commission officially made the island a reserve, off limits to people, in 1956. The park board originally named the island Waldo's Wildlife Sanctuary, after Waldo J Dahl, who took care of the swan. It is now only known as Duck Island.
Green Lake is a popular dumping ground for unwanted house pets and developed a large population of feral rabbits. The rabbits created problems by burrowing under streets and retaining walls and into the Woodland Park Zoo. Over the years volunteers adopted or removed the rabbits but not fast enough to keep the population under control. In 2005 the city and zoo combined with the Rabbit Sanctuary to remove all of the rabbits and present an educational outreach campaign to teach people not to abandon rabbits.[2] The practice of abandoning pets into or around Green Lake has resulted in several other non-native species needing removal, mostly ordinary goldfish but including exotic species such as sturgeon and caiman at various times.
Recently, a program has been implemented to substantially reduce the number of ducks and geese. Their droppings raise the level of phosphorus in the lake, leading to excessive growths of algae and milfoil. In 2003 the lake was treated with alum to encapsulate the phosphorus. A paddle boat, moored in the lake, is used to cut the milfoil. The fowl also leave pathogens in the lake which can cause Swimmer's itch. This shows the difficulty of maintaining water quality in a stagnant lake.
Fish, mainly trout which are occasionally restocked, live in the lake. A large amount of sucker fish (often confused with carp) are also present, along with largemouth bass, yellow perch, and small populations of many different unexpected species.
During the spring, Green Lake Park is in bloom with pink and white cherry trees. Planted along the west side of the lake in 1931 and 1932, they were a gift from the Japanese Association of North America.
[edit] References
- ^ [1] Aqua Theater on HistoryLink
- ^ http://woodlandparkrabbits.org/IntheNews.html News articles about the Woodland Park Rabbits organization
[edit] External links
- Green Lake cleanup and redesign begins in 1936
- Seafair including Aqua Follies held for first time in King County
- City of Seattle Parks & Recreation
- Seattle park history
- John Olmsted arrives in Seattle to design city parks on April 30, 1903
- Historic Green Lake hydroplane racing
- More historic hydroplane racing
- Memories of Aqua Theatre
