Columbia City, Seattle
Columbia City is a neighborhood located in the southeastern part of Seattle, Washington in the Rainier Valley district. It has a landmark-protected historic business district and is one of the few Seattle neighborhoods with a long history of ethnic and income diversity.[1]
The neighborhood's main thoroughfares running north-south are Rainier Avenue S. and Martin Luther King Jr. Way S. The principal east-west thoroughfares are S. Alaska Street and S. Genesee Street. Mass transit service includes Sound Transit's Central Link light rail service at the Columbia City station (approx. 15 minutes to downtown Seattle).
History
The area was once dense conifer forest, inhabited by the local Salish peoples, until the arrival of the Rainier Valley Electric Railway from Downtown in 1891. A lumber mill was built soon after, and in 1891 settlement began in earnest in "Columbia," named for the Columbia River, which was considered a symbol the Northwest power and bounty, or for Christopher Columbus, or for Columbia the personification of West-looking America, as in the song "Columbia, Gem of the Ocean" (listen) which was popular at the time of the city's founding. Three streets in the neighborhood bear names of other famous explorers (a Columbia Street already existed Downtown): Ferdinand Street after Magellan, Hudson Street after Henry Hudson, and Americus Street after Amerigo Vespucci.[2]
Columbia incorporated as "Columbia City" in January 1893. Annexation to the City of Seattle came May 3, 1907[3] following a petition by citizens to the City Council to hold a special election on the matter.[4] Although opposition to annexation had initially been strong due to citizens' desire for local control, the March 5 vote was overwhelming: 109-3 in favor of annexation to Seattle.[3]
In 1905, the newly renamed Seattle, Renton and Southern Railway extended south to Renton. In 1912 the streetcar line went bankrupt and was reorganized as the Seattle and Rainier Valley Railway. Its last run was just after midnight on January 1, 1937.[2] Meanwhile, Columbia City's ambitions to become a seaport were thwarted with the completion of the Lake Washington Ship Canal in 1917, which lowered Lake Washington by nine feet and caused Wetmore Slough to dry up. The former slough was used as a dump from 1941 to 1963, and is now Genesee Park.[2]
Recent history
As African Americans moved to Seattle to be part of the wartime industrial boom, many settled in the area, and in the 1960s the area began to suffer the effects of redlining and racism. By the 1970s, the neighborhood had fallen victim to poverty, housing stock had deteriorated, and many storefronts along Rainier Avenue S. were vacant.
The Columbia City business district was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980 as the Columbia City Historic District, extending north to S. Alaska Street, south to the intersection of 39th Ave S and Rainier Ave S, east to 39th Ave S., and west to the alley east of 35th Ave S.[5][6]
Beginning in the late 1980s, Columbia City saw a large influx of minority professionals, artists, gay and lesbian couples and "urban pioneers" seeking classic housing stock at low prices. By the late 1990s, Columbia City was already referred to as one of Seattle's most creative neighborhoods. In the last decade,[as of?] it has seen some of the sharpest rises in property values in the entire Seattle metropolitan area. The result has been widespread gentrification, including the restoration of many of the older homes and, in the last several years, the building of numerous condos and the planned construction of several hundred more.[7] As of 2008, Columbia City is one of Seattle's most diverse neighborhoods in terms of income and ethnicity, encompassing everything from public housing to multimillion-dollar view homes.
Columbia City today
Today, the thriving pedestrian business district along Rainier Avenue S. has become something of a citywide destination, and is home to six bars, a PCC Natural Markets grocery store, a number of restaurants, bakeries and coffee shops, assorted retail shops, a successful farmer's market on Wednesday evenings in the summer/fall, two art galleries, a book store, fitness facilities, a fraternal clubhouse, a movie theater and multiple live music venues, Bike Works (a community charity that lets kids earn bikes by learning to repair them), a biodiesel co-op, and several community service centers. The neighborhood hosts a bustling monthly "Beat Walk," every first Sunday, May–October, and many of the local businesses participate with Jazz bands, open houses and art shows.
The surrounding blocks are mostly single-family homes [citation needed]. Housing stock include craftsman bungalows, a mix of market-rate and low-income apartment buildings, and townhome developments. On the ridge above the business district, where views of Lake Washington and the Cascade Mountains are common, many new homes have been built, and many older homes expanded and updated. [8] Community estimates have put the number of new homes in the planning pipeline as numbering at least 1,500.[9] Little of this development will directly impact the single-family housing stock.
The New York Times wrote in 2008, "Columbia City still feels like a microcosm of the city itself, a gumbo of art galleries, bike shops, yoga studios and butchers where it’s easier to find homemade tamales or good pulled pork sandwich than a macchiato."[10]
Train service at the neighborhood's Link Light Rail station began in July 2009, connecting the neighborhood to both SeaTac airport and Downtown Seattle and, starting in 2016, to the Capitol Hill neighborhood and the University of Washington. Rainier Vista, once a post-war suburban public housing project, has been redeveloped into a mixed-use, mixed income community built around the light rail station, and includes more than 900 new homes (some subsidized, some rental, some owner-occupied) when completed.[11] In addition, the Downtown Emergency Services Center is building an apartment building nearby, permanent supported housing for formerly homeless men and women.
In mid-2015 a new PCC Natural Markets opened in the heart of Columbia City, replacing an old and dated store in the nearby Seward Park neighborhood. The new PCC development includes 5 stories of rental apartments. Across the street, a new park opened in what had been an abandoned, overgrown lot. 2015 also saw the opening of two new trendy restaurants in the neighborhood, Super Six and Salted Sea.
Besides the new businesses that might come along with these projects, there are quite a few new community and non-profit initiatives breaking ground, especially for children. The Boys and Girls Club has opened a new regional facility in the neighborhood, the Seward Park Audubon Society has an environmental learning center in nearby Seward Park and in 2008 the Brighton Playfield Science Park opened - one of the few free public science parks in the nation. A 2.1 million dollar renovation of the neighborhood's large Genesee Park was completed in late 2010.[12] A local arts group, the Pomegranate Center, has facilitated an effort to use public art, infrastructure changes and street furniture to slow traffic on Rainier Avenue and better connect Columbia City with the Hillman City neighborhood to the south, which has not yet seen the same level of reinvestment and renewal [citation needed].
References
- ^ http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=10164
- ^ a b c Cassandra Tate, Seattle Neighborhoods: Columbia City -- Thumbnail History, HistoryLink, June 2, 2001. Accessed 24 December 2007.
- ^ a b Cassandra Tate, City of Seattle annexes Columbia City on May 3, 1907, HistoryLink, May 30, 2001. Accessed 24 December 2007.
- ^ http://www.seattle.gov/CityArchives/Exhibits/annexation/panel3.htm
- ^ Columbia City Historic District, Seattle: A National Register of Historic Places Travel Itinerary, National Park Service. Accessed 24 December 2007.
- ^ Columbia City Landmark District, Seattle Department of Neighborhoods. Accessed 24 December 2007.
- ^ Excitement, Trepidation in Columbia City | Slog | The Stranger | Seattle's Only Newspaper
- ^ http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/09/meanwhile_in_columbia_city
- ^ http://columbiacitizens.net/forum/c-11538/public-input
- ^ Matthew Preusch (November 20, 2008), "36 hours in Seattle", The New York Times
- ^ Rainier Vista
- ^ Genesee Playfield Parks and Green Spaces Levy Project Information, Seattle Parks and Recreation, June 27, 2013
External links
- Seattle City Clerk's Neighborhood Map Atlas — Columbia City
- Columbia City
- Citizens' photo gallery
- Columbia City cybertour from HistoryLink.org
- Seattle Times article on light rail-related development
- Rainier Valley Historical Society
- Guide to the Columbia City Records 1893-1913
- Columbia City Beatwalk, a monthly community celebration