Gas Works was the first park I visited when I moved to Seattle,
resting my bike as I watched boats float by on Opening Day, that boating season beginning when Seattle springs to life.
A quintessential Seattle memory…
Gas Works has morphed from a contaminated environmental scourge to recently landing an honored spot on the National Register of Historic Places. (Photo: Helen Holter, 2013)
In January 2013, Gas Works Park was added to the honored National Register of Historic Places. Talk about a miracle makeover!
What draws so many Seattleites to this recycled 20-acre knoll on the north shore of Lake Union? Picnics, playgrounds, city views and its stellar centerpiece: A pile of iron junk and smokestacks sitting on a graveyard of once-contaminated dirt and oil. Gas Works, whose plant heated Seattle homes until 1956, is the first industrial site in the world to be recycled into a public park. In a city that pioneered recycling — well, why not this, too?
Kids gravitate to the graffiti-splashed playbarn of pipes, cogs, and engines— rusty leftovers from the gas plant’s 1906 beginnings. Enthusiasts hike the 60-foot hill to fly kites , admire sweeping city views, or to see if that sundial really works. (It does.)
Walkers, bikers, and joggers head for the hill–an itsy-bitsy 60-foot hill–with sweeping Seattle views. (Photo: Helen Holter, 2013)
A bit of history
Gas Works Park was originally named Myrtle Edwards Park, after the city councilwoman who worked hard to make the park a reality in 1975. After she died, however, relatives insisted that her name be removed; they felt the park was ugly, with its leftover smokestacks and pipes. (Myrtle Edwards’ name now graces another waterfront park.)
Recommended: Gas Works Park web site.
