West seattle peninsula

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Travel smarter, not harder with these additional resources. Terry platted and renamed the town on May 28, Perhaps in recognition of diminished expectations, he called it, simply, Alki. The Olympia Columbian approved of the new name. It is a pretty word, convenient, not borrowed or stolen from any other town or city, and is in its meaning expressive even unto prophesy.

The little community grew, but at a pace that must have frustrated Terry, its chief entrepreneur and booster. Terry operated a general store, served as postmaster, became a partner in a sawmill, and convinced two other men to open a barrel-making business. However, by both the sawmill and the barrel business had closed, followed the next year by the post office. Terry finally gave up in , trading his acres at Alki to David S.

With the departure of the last of the original settlers, Alki settled into a future in which modest hopes were balanced by stark realities. Most subsequent industry in West Seattle developed on the calmer, east-facing shores of Elliott Bay and on the Duwamish River. He, too, finally sold out, in For the next decade or so, Alki lay in an eddy of history, left to only a few intrepid souls. Meanwhile, several distinct communities emerged elsewhere on the peninsula.

The strip of land where Harbor Avenue is today became an industrial center, with a sawmill, several shipbuilding yards, and a salmon cannery all in business by More industries were attracted to the area after , when the Corps of Engineers began dredging the Duwamish River and filling in the tideflats at its mouth, creating the East and West Waterways with manmade Harbor Island in the middle. A milltown known as Freeport, and later as Milton, and still later as Youngstown and today as Delridge , provided housing, saloons, and other amenities for the workers.

Of these communities, only the town of West Seattle ever incorporated as a separate political entity in West Siders were not accustomed to thinking of themselves as a joined community. However, they have consistently found common cause on one issue: improved access to the mainland. That year, the West Seattle Land and Improvement Company financed largely by San Francisco capital bought most of what is now the Admiral district, replatted it, and began investing in transportation and other amenities in order to attract potential home buyers.

The crossing took eight minutes. One hundred and thirteen years, ten bridges, and tens of millions of dollars later, the City of Seattle still holds the record for the fastest trip between Seattle and West Seattle. The company also provided the first cable railway service to West Seattle, opening a two-mile line in September , for the benefit of ferry commuters.

However, the onset of a national economic crisis in left West Seattle, like the region as a whole, with a collapsing real estate market and a growing number of shuttered businesses. The cable line limped along until , when the company closed it. Only the ferry, the railway trestle, and a winding wagon road were left to link West Seattle to the mainland. Over the next few years, the West Seattle Land and Improvement Company repeatedly promised to improve the transportation system, provide more reliable water supplies, and install electric lighting on the peninsula.

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These communities rebuffed the town's effort to annex them in and The Seattle Electric Company then constructed a separate streetcar line from Youngstown, through Spring Hill and over to Fauntleroy two months later, and connected the California Avenue line with that in what is now the Junction. A flurry of real estate activity and home building followed, and on May 25, , the three communities voted to join the City of West Seattle with the promise of further annexation to the City of Seattle.

The city limits now comprised the entire West Seattle Peninsula covering On June 29, , West Seattle residents voted overwhelmingly for and 8 against to join the City of Seattle. I want to search within the following: Seattle. Gov This Site Only. SMA research room now open by appointment only with limited capacity Email archives seattle. Seattle Municipal Archives. West Seattle Mayors: George B.