Renaming Seattle’s Green Lake streets

This is a lookup table of Green Lake neighborhood of Seattle street names from the 1880s and 1890s together with their names today. For easy of use I include the table here, and narrative below.

Note: this content also appeared in the blog WallyHood.

The Green Lake data

Original name (1880s-1890s)	Current Name	Addition	Notes
Central Street	NE 53rd St	Woods South Div of Green Lake
Sheridan Street	N 54th St	Woods South Div of Green Lake, Wallingford's Div of Green Lake
Thomas Street	N 53nd St, NE 54th St	Woods South Div of Green Lake, Wallingford's Div of Green Lake	jogs north to the east
Sherman Street	N, NE 52nd St	Woods South Div of Green Lake, Wallingford's Div of Green Lake
Grant Street	N, NE 51st St	Woods South Div of Green Lake, Wallingford's Div of Green Lake
Chicago Ave	Latona Ave NE	Woods South Div of Green Lake
Kirkwood Ave	Kirkwood Pl N	Woods South Div of Green Lake, Kilbourne's Div of Green Lake	N 52nd to N 54th
Kensington Ave	Kensington Pl NE	Woods South Div of Green Lake, Kilbourne's Div of Green Lake
Keystone Ave	Keystone Pl NE	Woods South Div of Green Lake, Kilbourne's Div of Green Lake
Keystone Ave	1st Ave NE	Woods South Div of Green Lakee	South of N 52nd St
Canton Ave	5th Ave NE	Woods South Div of Green Lake
Caton Ave	Meridian Ave N	Woods South Div of Green Lake
Yacht Ave	(never constructed)	Woods South Shore Div of Green Lake
Green Lake Boulevard	East Green Lake Way N	Woods South Shore Div of Green Lake, Woodlawn Addition to Green Lake
The Terrace	Ashworth Ave N	Woods South Shore Div of Green Lake
First Ave	Woodlawn Ave N	Woods South Shore Div of Green Lake
Lincoln Ave	Wallingford Ave N	Woods South Shore Div of Green Lake, Wallingford's Div of Green Lake	south of N 57th St
Ladd Ave	Kenwood Pl N	Woods South Shore Div of Green Lake	"Kenwood Boulevard"?
Boulevard	N 57th St	Woods South Shore Div of Green Lake	north of N 57th - this is "Kenwood Boulevard"
Kenwood	Kenwood Pl N	Woods South Shore Div of Green Lake
Second Ave	McKinley Pl N	Woods South Shore Div of Green Lake
Canton Street	5th Ave NE	Kilbourne's Div of Green Lake
Chicago Street	Latona Ave NE	Kilbourne's Div of Green Lake
Carter Street	1st Ave NE	Kilbourne's Div of Green Lake, Burns & Atkinson Add
Kenosia Street	N 60th St	Kilbourne's Div of Green Lake
Corliss Street	Corliss Ave	Kilbourne's Div of Green Lake, Burns & Atkinson Add
Ladd St	N 56th St	1912 Baist Map	btw Keystone and Kensingtonin in Kilbourne's Green Lake
Lincoln St	N 52nd St	1912 Baist Map	btw Keystone and Kensingtonin in Wood's South Div
Lawrence St	N 54th St	1912 Baist Map	btw Keystone and Kensingtonin in Wood's South Div
Kimball Ave	N 56th St	Kilbourne's Div of Green Lake
Kenwood Boulevard	N 57th St	Kilbourne's Div of Green Lake
Kennebeck Ave	N 58th St	Kilbourne's Div of Green Lake
Kenilworth Ave	N 59th St	Kilbourne's Div of Green Lake
Baseline Ave	N 55th St	Kilbourne's Div of Green Lake
Harrison Ave	Woodlawn Ave N	Wallingford's Div of Green Lake
Interlake	N 65th St	Burns & Atkinson Add
Gates	N 64th St	Burns & Atkinson Add
Ellwood	N 63rd St	Burns & Atkinson Add
McEdwards	N 62nd St	Burns & Atkinson Add
Alston	N 61st St	Burns & Atkinson Add
Ella	Meridian Ave N	Burns & Atkinson Add
Park Side Ave	20th ave NE	Wood's Green Lake Park
Laurel Ave	19th Ave NE	Wood's Green Lake Park
Summit Ave	18th Ave NE	Wood's Green Lake Park
Crown Ave	17th Ave NE	Wood's Green Lake Park
Maple Ave	16th Ave NE	Wood's Green Lake Park
Lake View Ave	15th Ave NE	Wood's Green Lake Park, Pitner's 3rd Div of Green Lake, Pleasant Ridge Div of Green Lake
Inter-Lake Ave	NE 65th St	Wood's Green Lake Park
Osborne St	NE 68th St	Wood's Green Lake Park
Sumner St	NE 70th St	Wood's Green Lake Park
Prospect St	NE 73rd St	Wood's Green Lake Park, Pitner's 3rd Div of Green Lake	Vacated in Pitner's 3rd for reservoir
Webster St	NE 75th St	Wood's Green Lake Park
Prospect Place	N 67th St	Woodlawn Addition to Green Lake
First Ave	Woodlawn Ave N	Woodlawn Addition to Green Lake	west of 1st Ave NE
First Ave	Woodlawn Ave NE	Woodlawn Addition to Green Lake	east of 1st Ave NE
Summit Place	Chapin Pl NE	Woodlawn Addition to Green Lake
Yosemite Ave	Sunnyside Ave	Woodlawn Addition to Green Lake
Yellowstone Ave	1st Ave NE	Woodlawn Addition to Green Lake
Humbolt Ave	2nd Ave NE	Woodlawn Addition to Green Lake
Erie St	Latona Ave NE	Woodlawn Addition to Green Lake
Tahoe Ave	4th Ave NE	Woodlawn Addition to Green Lake
Latona Ave	5th Ave NE	Woodlawn Addition to Green Lake	Southeast from East Green Lake Way
Ravenna Ave	70th St NE	Woodlawn Addition to Green Lake	From Green Lake to Weedin/5th Ave NE
Meadow Ave	Ravenna Blvd NE	Woodlawn Addition to Green Lake	Ord 19290, 1908; rest of blvd created in 15924 (1908) and renamed in 19290 as well
Oswego Ave	Oswego Pl NE	Woodlawn Addition to Green Lake
Ravenna Ave	Weedin Pl NE	Woodlawn Addition to Green Lake
Huron Ave	NE 66th St	Woodlawn Addition to Green Lake	East of 5th Ave NE
Chelan St	NE 67th St	Woodlawn Addition to Green Lake	East of 5th Ave NE
Lomond St	NE 68th St	Woodlawn Addition to Green Lake	East of 5th Ave NE
Lucerne St	NE 69th St	Woodlawn Addition to Green Lake	East of 5th Ave NE
Nellie St	NE 70th St	Woodlawn Addition to Green Lake, Wallingford's Park Div of Green Lake, Pitner's 3rd Div of Green Lake	East of 5th Ave NE
Itasea Ave	NE 71st St	Woodlawn Addition to Green Lake	West of 5th Ave NE
Woodlawn Ave	NE 72nd St	Woodlawn Addition to Green Lake	West of 5th Ave NE
Oneida St	NE 73rd St	Woodlawn Addition to Green Lake, Saben's Div of Green Lake, C. L. Stone's Green Lake	West of 5th Ave NE
Maple Leaf Ave	Maple Leaf Pl	Woodlawn Addition to Green Lake	West of 5th Ave NE
Minnetonka Ave	4th Ave NE	Woodlawn Addition to Green Lake	South of NE 75th St
Winnepeg Ave	Latona Ave NE	Woodlawn Addition to Green Lake, Green Lake Home Add	South of NE 75th St. In Home add, it was vacated during replat.
Seneca Ave	2nd Ave NE	Woodlawn Addition to Green Lake	Replatted in Green Lake Home Add; South of NE 7th St
Green Lake Boulevard	East Green Lake Dr N	Woodlawn Addition to Green Lake, Green Lake Home Add
(unnamed)	8th Ave NE	Woodlawn Addition to Green Lake
Maple St	9th ave NE	Woodlawn Addition to Green Lake
Frost St	5th Ave NE	Woodlawn Addition to Green Lake, Wallingford's Park Div of Green Lake	north of E 70th St
West Ave	8th Ave NE	Weedin's Add
North St	NE 65th St	Weedin's Add
Spring St	NE 64th St	Weedin's Add
Cedar St	NE 63rd St	Weedin's Add
Alder St	NE 62nd St	Weedin's Add
Weedin Ave	9th ave NE	Weedin's Add
East Ave	10th Ave NE	Weedin's Add
Park Ave	Maple Leaf Pl	Wallingford's Park Div of Green Lake	5th Ave NE to 9th Ave NE
Park Ave	NE 74th St	Wallingford's Park Div of Green Lake	9th Ave NE to 10th Ave NE
Elizabeth Ave	NE 74th St	Wallingford's Park Div of Green Lake	5th Ave NE to NE 73rd St
Ravenna St	NE 73rd St	Wallingford's Park Div of Green Lake
Eva St	NE 72nd St	Wallingford's Park Div of Green Lake
Wood St	NE 71st St	Wallingford's Park Div of Green Lake
First St	6th Ave NE	Wallingford's Park Div of Green Lake
Second St	8th Ave NE	Wallingford's Park Div of Green Lake
Third St	9th ave NE	Wallingford's Park Div of Green Lake
Emma Pl	(I-5)	Wallingford's Park Div of Green Lake	Named after Emma Wallingford (daughter of John Wallingford)
Arabella Pl	(vacated)	Wallingford's Park Div of Green Lake	Named after Arabella Wallingford (wife of John Wallingford); vacated in Wallingford's Park Supplemental in 1901
Maple St	Roosevelt Way NE	Wallingford's Park Div of Green Lake
High St	NE 75th St	Wallingford's Park Div of Green Lake
Motor Ave	NE 69th St	James Div of Green Lake
Lake Ave	NE 68th St	James Div of Green Lake
Hall Ave	NE 67th St	James Div of Green Lake
Olympic Ave	NE 66th St	James Div of Green Lake
James St	12th Ave NE	James Div of Green Lake	Named after N.A. and Fannie James
Minnesota Ave	Latona Ave NE	Krauch's Div of Green Lake, Pitner's Div of Green Lake, Pitner's 2nd Div of Green Lake, Hutchinson's 2nd Div of Green Lake, Dodge's Division of Green Lake, Saben's Div of Green Lake
Illinois Ave	2nd Ave NE	Krauch's Div of Green Lake, Green Lake Home Add, Pitner's Div of Green Lake, Pitner's 2nd Div of Green Lake, Dodge's Division of Green Lake
Michigan Ave	1st Ave NE	Krauch's Div of Green Lake, Green Lake Home Add, Pitner's Div of Green Lake, Pitner's 2nd Div of Green Lake, Dodge's Division of Green Lake
Fawn St	NE 77th St	Krauch's Div of Green Lake, Pitner's 2nd Div of Green Lake, Saben's Div of Green Lake, C. L. Stone's Green Lake
Denny Ave	Wallingford Ave N	Green Lake Home Add
Stroud Ave	Stroud Ave N	Green Lake Home Add
Sunset Ave	N 78th St	Green Lake Home Add
South View Ave	N 77th St	Green Lake Home Add
Olympic Ct	Orin Ct N	Green Lake Home Add	Still Olympic in 1912
Garden Ave	Bagley Ave N	Green Lake Home Add
Brookside Ave	Corliss Ave N	Green Lake Home Add
Sunnyside Ave	Sunnyside Ave N	Green Lake Home Add
Crescent Pl	N 75th St	Replat Green Lake Home Add
Home St	Meridian Ave N	Replat Green Lake Home Add
Deer St	N 80th St	Replat Green Lake Home Add, Pitner's Div of Green Lake
Deer St	NE 80th St	Pitner's Div of Green Lake, Pitner's 2nd Div of Green Lake, Hutchinson's 2nd Div of Green Lake
Stroud Ave	N 80th St	Green Lake Home Add	west of Stroud Ave and 80th intersection until Burke Ave N; south side of street
Ohio Ave	Corliss Ave N	Pitner's Div of Green Lake, Evans Div of Green Lake	"Avenu" in Pitner's
Indiana Ave	Sunnyside Ave N	Pitner's Div of Green Lake
Buffalo St	N 85th St	Pitner's Div of Green Lake, Evans Div of Green Lake, Dodge's Division of Green Lake
Elk St	NE 82nd St	Pitner's Div of Green Lake, Dodge's Division of Green Lake, Green Lake Electric, Johnson's Green Lake
Elk St	N 82nd St	Pitner's Div of Green Lake, Evans Div of Green Lake
Grant Street	14th Ave NE	Pitner's 3rd Div of Green Lake	Labeled "(Brooklyn) 13th Ave NE" in 1912 Baist
Corran St	Brooklyn Ave NE	Pitner's 3rd Div of Green Lake
James St	12th Ave NE	Pitner's 3rd Div of Green Lake
Fairview St	6th Ave NE	Wallingford's Park Supplemental,
Vista Ave	NE 77th St	Hutchinson's Div
Groreland Ave	NE 76th St	Hutchinson's Div
Lake Ave	NE 75th St	Hutchinson's Div
Nevins St	5th Ave NE	Hutchinson's Div, C. L. Stone's	Named after Richard Nevins Jr, Civil Eng, who made drawings for both Huthinson's and Stone's
Fair View St	6th Ave NE	Hutchinson's Div
Forest St	8th Ave NE	Hutchinson's Div	In 1912 Baist, Forest/8th doesn't exist yet and is part of undeveloped neighboring property. In 1904 Sanborn, unclear.
Richard's St	NE 82nd St	Hutchinson's 2nd Div of Green Lake
Princess St	NE 81st St	Hutchinson's 2nd Div of Green Lake, Green Lake Electric, Johnson's Green Lake	"Princes" in Johnson's
Nevada Ave	4th Ave NE	Hutchinson's 2nd Div of Green Lake, Dodge's Division of Green Lake
Arizona Ave	5th Ave NE	Hutchinson's 2nd Div of Green Lake, Dodge's Division of Green Lake
Touchet Ave	Meridian Ave N	Evans Div of Green Lake
Walla Walla Ave	Bagley Ave N	Evans Div of Green Lake
Longwood St	NE Longwood Pl	Saben's Div of Green Lake, C. L. Stone's Green Lake
York St	NE 80th St	Green Lake Electric, Johnson's Green Lake
Adelaide St	NE 83rd St	Green Lake Electric, Johnson's Green Lake
Lillian St	NE 84th St	Green Lake Electric, Johnson's Green Lake
Prest St	NE 85th St	Green Lake Electric, Johnson's Green Lake	Named after Thomas and Sarah Prest
A St	5th Ave NE	Green Lake Electric
B St	8th Ave NE	Green Lake Electric, Johnson's Green Lake
C st	Roosevelt Way NE	Johnson's Green Lake
East St	17th Ave NE	Pleasant Ridge Div of Green Lake	Webster Pl in 1912 Baist
North St	NE 77th St	Pleasant Ridge Div of Green Lake	Between 15th NE and 17th Ave NE
Central Ave	NE 76th St	Pleasant Ridge Div of Green Lake	Between 15th NE and 17th Ave NE

Here it is for free use on figshare.

Data context

Off and on for a handful of years I’ve been working on a list of all of the buildings constructed in 1890. The Seattle P-I published the list on January 1, 1891, celebrating the city’s rebirth after the Great Fire. It’s an amazing snapshot, but the building locations are nonsensical because almost all of Seattle’s streets were renamed in the years following the Great Fire.

To determine where they were I created spreadsheets of a series of ordinances that renamed the city. For areas without ordinances to be found, I looked through a variety of 1880s to 1910s maps to determine old and new street names. I also published all of that data as csv files to figshare for free use, and I’ve posted them to my website as lookup tables for quick searching.

Find links to all of the neighborhoods at the bottom of this page. This time I cover Green Lake. Later there will be more.

The Green Lake context

Just 25 buildings were built in Green Lake in 1890, but it’s still a missing neighborhood in my effort to pinpoint the current spot for all homes, barns, and brick buildings constructed in Seattle in 1890.

Green Lake’s earliest plats date from 1888, just before Seattle’s Great Fire. A handful of land owners worked together to build a streetcar line and sell their land in parcels to prospective homeowners. By 1890 the east and south side of the lake were laid out and up for sale. With each plat came a set of new street names.

I don’t know exactly when the names changed, but by the end of the 1890s Green Lake’s street grid was just about how we know it today. Green Lake was annexed into Seattle in 1891 along with other communities north of the water barrier of Lake Union, Queen Anne, and Montlake.

All of the streets of Seattle south of what we now call the ship canal and Fremont cut were renamed by an ordinance in 1895. Smaller ordinances changed names just prior and after that. I have not found such an ordinance for Green Lake, or the other 1891 annexed communities. I don’t know if that means another method was used to change Green Lake’s street names, or if it just had a different syntax of ordinance title that escapes my discovery.

Wonky streets

If you’ve been there, you know the streets are wonky in Green Lake. When you see that, you can be pretty sure that something weird was going on in the heads of the people that laid out the maps, and weird things have happened since.

Two things have stood out to me so far. First is Wallingford’s Division of the Green Lake Addition. Wallingford made his plat a Civil War Union memorial. The names were Lincoln (Wallingford), Sheridan (N 54th), Thomas (N 53rd), Sherman (N 52nd) and Grant (N 51st). He also included Harrison (Woodlawn), named after the president in 1889 when the plat was filed.

Second is Kilbourne’s div of Green Lake. The Kilbournes knew they kouldn’t keep knaming streets with Ks, but they tried anyways. The off-kilter streets Kensington, Kirkwood, Keystone, and Kenwood all came from Kilbourne. They also had cross streets Kenosia (N 60th), Kenilworth (59th), Kennebeck (58th), and Kimball (56th).

Today our tiny Kenwood Place starts at the lake and runs southeast to N 55th. It was created as Kenwood Boulevard though, which was east-west (57th) from the edge of their plat to Kirkwood, then bent north (still 57th now), then bent north again to the lake (the north half of current Kenwood Place). It was platted at 80 feet, while surrounding streets were 60 or 66.

If you look at the aerial map, Kenwood Place now has inexplicably massive intersections with Woodlawn and McKinley — these are all back roads. And the houses from East Green Lake Way to 57th are set waaay back from the street. That’s because it was supposed to be a boulevard entrance to the neighborhood. It was supposed to be like Ravenna is today.

Something that happened later is a bit surprising too. Ladd Ave in Wood’s South Shore became the narrow half of Kenwood Place. But then the section of N 56th between Keystone and Kensington — which had been named Kimball — was renamed Ladd for some period of time.

Similarly, Wallingford’s Lincoln Ave became Wallingford Ave, but also the section of N 52nd between Keystone and Kensington — which was named Sherman — for some time was called Lincoln. I don’t understand why they shifted these street names over to connecting streets.

Along the way I stumbled on a cool voting district map from 1891. Green Lake was annexed in the middle of the year, so they added in all of the streets, but for some reason had to literally pencil in the street names. Maybe they ran out of time? In Wood’s South Shore (up and left of the “9”), the streets are penciled in as well.

Wallingford’s Park

Wallingford’s Park Division of Green Lake is interesting and tragic. It’s a very early Green Lake plat.

Since it was filed in November 1889 we need to think of both streetcar-inspired demand for remote single family homes, and the demand created by displaced Pioneer Square residents from the Great Fire and the people that flooded the city as it rebuilt.

Two things make it interesting to me. First, Wallingford named two short streets after his wife Arabella and his daughter Emma though neither street exists now. Coincidentally, my great, great grandfather Fred Stroud worked for Wallingford and my gg grandmother was Arabella Stroud, sharing the name of his employer’s wife.

The streets were removed separately. First Arabella Place was removed in a replat of the northeast corner of the addition. The curved streets of the addition needed to be reworked to match Hutchinson’s Division to the north. Removed by 1912. Then Emma Place was erased in the creation of Interstate 5.

Interstate 5 also completely erased the second interesting part of the plat. Wallingford had many curving streets in his small addition, and at the soft corners he put in a fan-like spread of wedge shaped lots. 1936 aerial photos show that many of these were combined for large lots, but in particular the fan on the north corner of the intersection of Maple Leaf Pl, Emma Pl, NE 74th St, and 9th Ave NE (removed for I-5) still had most of the fan intact.

The neighborhoods on either side of I-5 do have many off-kilter streets, but there’s nothing like the rolling streets of Wallingford’s Park Division. East Green Lake Way and Woodlawn curve, but to match the shoreline of the lake.

Related Articles

• Renaming streets of Seattle in 1895
• Renaming streets of Seattle in 1906
• Streets of Kirkland
• Streets of Ballard ca 1907
• Streets of Ballard named by A. B. Jennings
• Streets of Columbia City, Beacon Hill and West Seattle in 1907
• Streets of Fremont, Wallingford, Latona and Brooklyn (western U District) c1891 through today
• Brygger Place: Ballard Streets Revisited
• Weird Streets of UMadBro (for Capitol Hill Seattle Blog)
• 1892 problems at Harvard and Thomas (for Capitol Hill Seattle Blog)
• All structures built in Seattle area in 1890