Madrona, Seattle, Washington
Encyclopedia
Seattle, Washington
Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...
. It is bounded on the east by Lake Washington
Lake Washington
Lake Washington is a large freshwater lake adjacent to the city of Seattle. It is the largest lake in King County and the second largest in the state of Washington, after Lake Chelan. It is bordered by the cities of Seattle on the west, Bellevue and Kirkland on the east, Renton on the south and...
; on the south by E. Cherry Street, beyond which is Leschi
Leschi, Seattle, Washington
Leschi is a neighborhood located within the city of Seattle, Washington, USA. The neighborhood is named after Chief Leschi of the Nisqually tribe.- Location :...
; on the west by Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the...
Way, beyond which is the Central District
Central District, Seattle, Washington
The Central District is a mostly residential district in Seattle located east of Cherry Hill, west of Madrona and Leschi, south of Capitol Hill, and north of Rainier Valley...
; and on the north by E. Howell Street, beyond which is Denny-Blaine
Denny-Blaine, Seattle, Washington
Denny-Blaine is a neighborhood in east central Seattle, Washington. It is bounded on the east by Lake Washington; on the south by E. Howell Street, beyond which is Madrona; on the west by 32nd Avenue, beyond which is Madison Valley; and on the north by Lake Washington Boulevard E., Hillside Drive...
.
The neighborhood's main thoroughfares are E. Union and E. Cherry Streets (east- and westbound), Madrona Drive (northwest- and southeast-bound), and 34th Avenue and Lake Washington Boulevard (north- and southbound). It is home to Madrona Park
Madrona Park (Seattle)
Madrona Park is a 31.2 acre park located in the Madrona neighborhood of Seattle, Washington, bisected by Lake Washington Boulevard. It lies on the western shore of Lake Washington and features picnic areas, a swimming beach with bathhouse, and parking area...
and the 34th Avenue and E. Union commercial area.
History
The neighborhood was named by John Ayer, who contributed the land for Madrona Park, after a species of tree (ArbutusArbutus
Arbutus is a genus of at least 14 species of flowering plants in the family Ericaceae, native to warm temperate regions of the Mediterranean, western Europe, and North America.-Description:...
) common to the area.
Madrona's motto, "The Peaceable Kingdom," reflects its racially-mixed heritage. In the early 20th century, the coal mining
Coal mining
The goal of coal mining is to obtain coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content, and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from iron ore and for cement production. In the United States,...
industry brought Chinese
Chinese American
Chinese Americans represent Americans of Chinese descent. Chinese Americans constitute one group of overseas Chinese and also a subgroup of East Asian Americans, which is further a subgroup of Asian Americans...
immigrants to Madrona. Later, the shipbuilding
Shipbuilding
Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and floating vessels. It normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation that traces its roots to before recorded history.Shipbuilding and ship repairs, both...
boom brought an influx of African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
s. For most of the second half of the 20th Century, 34th Avenue divided the neighborhood between mostly middle-class African American (to the west) and upper-class Caucasian (to the east). The Black Panthers used the Madrona Playfield on Spring Street and 34th Avenue as its marching drill location in Seattlehttp://www.historylink.org/output.cfm?file_id=2235.
In more recent years, as the neighborhood has gentrified, Madrona has been steadily returning to a more Caucasian demographic. The 2000 Census notes that, of the 5,097 residents in King County Census Tract 78 (covering Madrona east of 31st Avenue), 72% are Caucasian (up from 65% in 1990), 20% are African American (down from 29% in 1990), and 4% are Asian
Asian American
Asian Americans are Americans of Asian descent. The U.S. Census Bureau definition of Asians as "Asian” refers to a person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent, including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan,...
(roughly unchanged from 1990). Census Tract 77, two-thirds of which is in the Central District, has a significantly higher percentage of African American residents.