Queen Anne

A City of Seattle historic-context statement prepared for the Department of Neighborhoods says Queen Anne is one of the city’s oldest residential neighborhoods. Pioneer settler Thomas Mercer first called the forested, water-lapped district Eden Hill. By the mid-1880s the growing suburb had acquired the name Queen Anne Town, which the city statement says was reportedly coined by the Rev. Daniel Bagley for its showy Queen Anne–style houses.

The same city statement says Native habitation on Elliott Bay dates back at least 3,000 years, and that the Duwamish occupied winter villages on the bay. Baba’kwoh, meaning prairies, was the Native name for a gathering place in the swale where Seattle Center now stands. Lands between Lake Union and Interbay, from Denny Way to McGraw Street, were annexed to Seattle in 1883. A cable car climbed Temperance Street, now Queen Anne Avenue, to Highland Drive by 1888. George and Angie Kinnear donated 11 acres for a park in 1887 and added three more in 1897.

Community activism later tempered intensive development after World War II, including construction of the Century 21 world’s fair complex in 1962 on lower Queen Anne. The city statement says the hill stands nearly 400 feet above sea level. The sources below are the city’s 2005 Queen Anne historic-context statement.