This street was created in 1926 as part of the Replat of a Portion of Blocks 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 of North Beach, an Addition to the City of Seattle. I presume it was named, similarly to Montavista Place W and Viewmont Way W, for the neighborhood’s view of Puget Sound (“mar”) and the Olympic Mountains (“mount”).
Loyal Way NW
Like Loyal Avenue NW, this street was named by Edward B. Cox, Harry Whitney Treat (1865–1922), and Treat’s wife, Olive Marion Graef Treat (1869–1945) in the 1907 plat of Loyal Heights. The streets and the subdivision were named after Loyal Graef Treat Nichols (1906–2004), the Treats’ newborn daughter.
Loyal Way NW begins at 28th Avenue NW and NW 80th Street and goes just over ⅓ of a mile northwest to 32nd Avenue Northwest and NW 85th Street, following the route of the Loyal Electric Street Railway that Treat built in 1907.
Sylvan Place NW
This street was named as part of the 1907 plat of Loyal Heights, filed by Edward B. Cox and Harry Whitney Treat, and Treat’s wife, Olive Marion Graef Treat. Then, as now, the lots abutted a wooded (“sylvan”) area surrounding an unnamed creek that begins between Golden Gardens Drive NW and Forest Hill Place NW just north of NW 87th Street and flows to Puget Sound, heading into a culvert just south of Whitney Place NW and continuing under NW Esplanade and the BNSF Railway mainline to the privately owned North Beach.
Sylvan Place NW begins at the intersection of Loyal Avenue NW and Golden Gardens Drive NW and goes around 400 feet northeast, where it turns into Cyrus Avenue NW.
Dave Niehaus Way S
Note: This was originally published on Crosscut.com on April 4, 2011, as ‘Niehaus Way South: a nice tribute, or half of one anyway’ (reminder: stringers don’t write their own headlines). Recently, Cascade PBS took down what appears to be most of the stories from the Crosscut days, so I thought I’d repost some of my articles here. The original subhed was:
The new ‘designation’ for one stretch of First Avenue South will honor the late Mariner broadcaster without fully renaming the street. Here’s why that’s a good thing.
Later today (April 4), nearly 32 years to the day after S. Connecticut Street was renamed S. Royal Brougham Way for the late P-I sportswriter, the Seattle City Council is expected to honor another sports legend with a SoDo street. First Avenue South between Royal Brougham and Edgar Martinez Drive South will receive a “secondary designation” of Dave Niehaus Way South.
Though official, it is not a renaming in the same way Connecticut and Atlantic became Royal Brougham and Edgar Martinez, or Airport Way in front of the old INS building reverted to its historic name of Seattle Boulevard. As councilmember Sally Clark notes in the April edition of her email newsletter, “it will still be First Ave. S. on your street maps and GIS systems, but you’ll see a special brown sign with Dave’s name.”
Clark’s office says the Mariners are paying for the installation, and that there will be an unveiling on April 8, the day of the Mariners’ home opener. “The street naming is one tribute among many,” said Clark, when asked for comment. “I hope the signs remind people of Dave’s voice and of great plays seen from the stands or heard on the radio.”
”By renaming this street, we affirm that the legend of Dave Niehaus will never die,” said Glen Garnett, paraphrasing a line from “The Sandlot.” Garnett originally wanted to rename this stretch of First Avenue after Ken Griffey, Jr., but redirected his efforts after Niehaus’ death.
So what does this mean for proposals to name Seattle’s alleys and other unnamed spaces? A year ago, Crosscut’s Knute Berger wrote that “honorary names … won’t show up on maps or as addresses, and they can cause confusion… they can become controversial for being too outlandish, too commercial, or not politically correct.” But they could nevertheless be the best way forward. Budgets may never again allow for Great Renamings, but nothing should stand in the way of projects with smaller scope, catalogued online, funded by local property owners or heritage groups, and approved in, say, twice-yearly batches.
Pioneer Square’s Nord Alley, Downtown’s News Lane, and Denny-Blaine’s Swanson’s Alley are among the initial candidates I’d put forward. Yesler Terrace is another possibility. Regardless of one’s position on its redevelopment, a nod to Jesse Epstein and Nihonmachi (Japantown) seems in order. Considering the current and likely future funding environment, “secondary designations” deserve a serious look as a cost-effective way to bring a sense of place and history to the streets of Seattle.
Balmer Yard
In June 2025, the BNSF Railway‘s Balmer Yard in Magnolia/Interbay closed. Nothing had appeared in the news as of the end of the month — just in Facebook groups and railroading bulletin boards — but it looks as if over a century of railroad operations in the neighborhood has come to an end (with the exception of the BNSF main line, known here as the Scenic Subdivision).
Update as of June 26, 2025: Feliks Banel has received this statement from BNSF:
“Driven by the success of efficiency initiatives across our network, rail cars are spending much less time dwelling in yards and more time moving the nation’s freight. This increase in productivity has allowed us to move more freight than this time last year with significantly fewer cars. Given the close proximity of our Seattle Stacy Yard and Balmer Yard, with fewer cars sitting in terminals, we were able to consolidate the two operations into one location.
“Although we are not actively switching or repairing cars at Balmer Yard, it is still critical to our overall capacity and operations. We are utilizing the facility to position cars for future customer shipments such as intermodal, lumber, and grain to be quickly injected into our network. All employees that previously went on duty at Balmer were shifted to nearby locations in Tacoma, Seattle and Everett.”
The yard, originally known as Interbay Yard and first mention in The Seattle Times in 1900, was renamed for Thomas Balmer (1888-1959) in 1968 upon its modernization into a hump yard, which took advantage of the 1% grade of the land that had formerly been part of the Smith Cove tideflats.
Balmer began working at the Great Northern Railway in 1907, seven years after he moved to Seattle from Illinois. He went to law school while working there, and by 1929 had become vice president and Western counsel. Balmer retired from the GN in 1958, a year before his death. (In 1970, the GN merged with the Northern Pacific Railway; the Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway; and the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad to form the Burlington Northern Railroad. BN itself merged with the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway in 1996 to form today’s BNSF.)
Balmer was also a real estate investor and a regent of the University of Washington. It is for this latter service, from 1934 until his death, that he was honored by the longtime home of the University of Washington School of Business, Balmer Hall. Completed in 1962, it was demolished in 2010.
Howell Place
This street was named in 1923 by Ordinance 45722, which provided that:
That certain alley in the City of Seattle, being the alley in Block one (1), Yesler & McGilvra Addition, running from East Howell Street to East Olive Street, and lying between Fortieth Avenue and Lake Washington, be and the same is hereby designated as, and named, EAST HOWELL PLACE.
It was named after E Howell Street, itself named for Jefferson Davis Howell (1846–1875).
Howell Place begins at E Howell Street just east of Lake Washington Boulevard and goes just under 400 feet south to E Olive Lane.
Vista Avenue S
This street was created in two stages: the southern portion of this street in 1971 as 25th Avenue S, part of the plat of Beacon Vista; the northern portion in 1976, part of Goodwin’s Addition. A year before the second plat was filed, its name was changed to Vista Avenue S, obviously after the initial plat.
Beacon Vista itself was named for its view from Beacon Hill, not of Beacon Hill:
Today, Vista Avenue S begins at S Willow Street between Mars Avenue S and Beacon Avenue S, and goes 800 feet north to S Holly Street west of Beacon Avenue S.
Eastlake Place NE
This unnamed street, which was built sometime between 2002 and 2005, received a name in 2016 as part of a bill to improve emergency wayfinding, Ordinance 125106, which dealt with a number of other street name changes as well. It was named, of course, for Eastlake Avenue NE (the University Bridge), in whose right-of-way it was built. The bill summary provides details:
Name change of a lower roadway at the east of the present existing bridge on Eastlake Avenue NE between its south terminus at the shoreline and the south margin of NE Pacific Street to Eastlake Place NE: In 2010, this portion of Eastlake Avenue NE was informally renamed as Eastlake Place NE in 2010 by SDOT but it was not legally renamed by ordinance. This action will formally name the segment by ordinance. It is necessary to legally name this segment to get the name to properly present on mapping tools pulling from Street Network Database and SDOT’s asset management program, Hansen 8. Not showing the correct name is causing internal SDOT confusion. The University of Washington also needs to officially address facilities off of this segment and DPD cannot proceed until the name is changed. (Also relevant to new segment in Eastlake r/w north of Pacific; see below). SDOT sign records notes this intersection signed as Eastlake Avenue NE in 2004, however no notation prior. Per orthophotos, the Eastlake right-of-way under the University Bridge was built to its current configuration between 2002 and 2005, potentially as part of the new building construction for 905 Boat Street.
Naming a lower roadway at the east of the present existing bridge on Eastlake Ave NE between the north margin of NE Pacific Street and the south margin of NE 40th Street to Eastlake Place NE: Names this newly constructed segment Eastlake Place NE to agree with segment to the south.
Eastlake Place NE begins on the Lake Union shoreline south of NE Pacific Street and goes around 500 feet northeast to the Burke-Gilman Trail, the last 160 or so feet being a pathway.
Tower Place
This Queen Anne street was established in 1923 as Lee Place and received its current name in 1924. It was likely named for the Queen Anne Standpipes, a pair of water towers nearby that were built in 1900 and 1901 and served the neighborhood until 2007. Even though they were historical landmarks, they were subsequently demolished and replaced with the current single tower.
Interestingly, though its lack of a directional designation (e.g., Tower Place N) would imply it’s an east–west street, the quarter section map appears to indicate it’s both, beginning at Lee Street just south of Observatory Courts and going 175 feet south to a dead end, and beginning halfway down the aforementioned segment and going around 100 feet east to a dead end.
NE NOAA Drive
This street was created in 1977 to connect the proposed NOAA Western Regional Center to Sand Point Way NE. It was unnamed for many years, but was finally signed sometime before 2009, when the below picture was taken. NOAA, of course, stands for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which built its regional headquarters on the northern portion of the decommissioned Sand Point Naval Air Station.
NE NOAA Drive begins at Sand Point Way NE between NE 77th Street and the Fairway Estates access road and goes ¼ mile east to the beginning of a mile-long loop through the NOAA campus.
Heights Place SW
Like Heights Avenue SW, this West Seattle street was created in 1924 as part of the plat of Hunnel Heights, an Addition to the City of Seattle.
Heights Place SW begins at Heights Avenue SW between 41st and 42nd Avenues SW and goes 175 feet south to a dead end.
Heights Avenue SW
This West Seattle street was created in 1924, along with Heights Place SW, as part of the plat of Hunnel Heights, an Addition to the City of Seattle, named for James (1857–1925) and Mamie Hunnel (1868–1951). Why it wasn’t Hunnel Avenue instead, I’m not sure.
Heights Avenue SW beings at 41st Avenue SW between SW Frontenac Street and SW Holly Street and goes 350 feet northwest to 42nd Avenue SW.
Gatewood Road SW
This West Seattle street was created in 1909 as part of the Replat of Blocks 2, 5, and 6, Lincoln Beach Park. Based on its proximity to the Gatewood Acre Tracts and Gatewood Gardens subdivisions, it would appear to have been named for the developer Carlisle Gatewood (1860–1947), after whom Gatewood Elementary School and the Gatewood neighborhood itself are also named.
Gatewood Road SW begins at Glenridge Way SW south of SW Othello Street and goes around 850 feet southeast to 40th Avenue SW north of SW Webster Street.
Marine Avenue SW
This street was created in 1906 as part of the plat of Seaside Addition, a Replat of Part of Lot 2, Alki Point, filed by William Holt (who was, among other things, proprietor of the Grand Central Hotel in Pioneer Square). He passed away nine years later, as noted in this story from the front page of the November 18, 1915, issue of The Seattle Star. Running just over 450 feet south from Alki Avenue SW to SW Lander Street, between 58th and 59th Avenues SW, it would seem to be a reasonable assumption that it was so named for its close proximity to the waterfront.
Sue Bird Court N
This Lower Queen Anne street adjacent to the Seattle Center campus was named in honor of Seattle Storm basketball star Sue Bird (born 1980) in the fall of 2024. As Ordinance 121704 says,
Sue Bird is the winningest and greatest women’s professional basketball player of all time; and… played her entire 20-year professional career for the Seattle Storm, bringing home to Seattle four WNBA titles (2004, 2010, 2018, and 2020), while also winning five Olympic gold medals (2004-2020).
This, incidentally, makes Sue Bird the third Jew and the first Jewish woman to have a Seattle street named for her (Cowen Place NE and Fuhrman Avenue E are the other two).
Originally 2nd Avenue N, the street (obviously redesignated a court in a nod to Bird’s sport) begins at the intersection of 2nd Avenue and Denny Way and goes just over 800 feet north to Lenny Wilkens Way, named for another Seattle basketball star. (North of there, its name changes to Seattle Storm Way.)
Woodside Place SW
This West Seattle street was created as part of the plat of Woodside, an Addition to the City of Seattle, filed on June 17, 1919, by Eugene E. Harold, and named for the subdivision. I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to assume the subdivision was so named because of its proximity to the wooded area that is now Lincoln Park.
Woodside Place SW begins at SW Myrtle Street just south of Gatewood Elementary School and goes just over 600 feet south to SW Othello Street.
Ward Place
This block-long Queen Anne street is named for Ward Street, itself named after Dillis B. Ward (1838-1922). It was established in 1903 by Ordinance 9310 as East Queen Anne Drive. It may have been renamed later that year by Ordinance 10261, but as the latter ordinance has not yet been scanned by the city, we know it amends the section of the earlier ordinance dealing with the street — but not exactly how.
Ward Place begins at Taylor Avenue N just north of Aloha Street and goes 330 feet northeast to Ward Street just west of 6th Avenue N (intersection pictured below).
Incidentally, Seattle City Councilman Hiram C. Gill (1866–1919), who would go on to become mayor from 1910–1911 and 1914–1918, was adamantly against its construction, and was no fan of the residents of East Queen Anne, either:
Just a few nights ago those yellers up there held a meeting and denounced this council as a lot of grafters that were into all kinds of corruption, and now they come right down here and demand that we give them something that nobody else would have the gall to ask for. It is time that bunch should be set back a little. There are only about two dozen people living up there anyway and there is no reason why a lot of money should be spent for improvements for a handful of people when no other part of the city can get anything in the way of special favors. That crowd up there has been getting one thing after another just because they holler for it. They are just a lot of cheeky grafters anyway. I wouldn’t care if there was any kind of decent people living up there but if those fellows had to walk up hill every day and then were put in jail and kept there until Hades froze over they would be getting just about what they want.
Mountain View Drive S
This street, created in 1923 by Ordinance 45500, received its current name in 1929. Before then, it was part of 28th and 29th Avenues S. The mountain in question would be Mount Rainier, which, it was recently announced, is no longer 14,410 feet high, but rather 14,399.6, due to a melting icecap.
Mountain View Drive S begins at S Columbian Way and S Alaska Street and goes ⅙ of a mile southeast to 29th Avenue S and S Edmunds Street.
This blog featured on Feliks Banel’s live radio show “Cascade of History”
Did you know:
- That there’s a low-power FM radio station broadcasting from studios in Magnuson Park — SPACE 101.1 FM (KMGP-LP)?
- That every Sunday night at 8 p.m. local historian Feliks Banel hosts a live show called Cascade of History?
- And that on September 22, 2024, Feliks interviewed me about this blog?
Have a listen:
Montvale Place W
What is now Montvale Place W was originally Montvale Court W, created in 1915 as part of the plat of Carleton Park. When originally platted, Montvale Court formed a horseshoe-shaped loop, but at some point (the quarter section map doesn’t say, and I can find no relevant city ordinance), the eastern and southeastern part of the street, plus the alley connecting to 34th Avenue W, was renamed Montvale Place W.
Montvale Place W begins at 35th Avenue W south of Montvale Court W and goes ⅛ of a mile northeast, then north, to the intersection of Viewmont Way W, 34th Avenue W, and W Lynn Street.
