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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).

Boarded-up building at Balmer Yard
Boarded-up Seattle Terminal building at foot of 20th Avenue W. Photograph by Benjamin Lukoff. Copyright © 2025 Benjamin Lukoff. All rights reserved.
Boarded-up building at Balmer Yard
Boarded-up building among the tracks at the foot of 20th Avenue W., looking east. Photograph by Benjamin Lukoff. Copyright © 2025 Benjamin Lukoff. All rights reserved.
Boarded-up building at Balmer Yard
Another boarded-up building among the tracks at the foot of 20th Avenue W., looking southeast. Photograph by Benjamin Lukoff. Copyright © 2025 Benjamin Lukoff. All rights reserved.
Boarded-up building at Balmer Yard
Boarded-up Interbay Car Shop building along Gilman Avenue W. Photograph by Benjamin Lukoff. Copyright © 2025 Benjamin Lukoff. All rights reserved.

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.

Thomas Balmer
Thomas Balmer in photo accompanying his obituary in The Seattle Times, August 1, 1959
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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).

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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.

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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.

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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.

Old Queen Anne Hill water towers
An “early 20th century,” according to Paul Dorpat, postcard of the water towers and adjacent fire station
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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.

Sign at corner of NE NOAA Drive and Sand Point Way NE, October 2009
Sign at corner of NE NOAA Drive and Sand Point Way NE. Photograph by Benjamin Lukoff, October 2009. Copyright © 2009 Benjamin Lukoff. All rights reserved.
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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.

Obituary of Carlisle Gatewood from May 30, 1947, issue of The Seattle Times
Obituary of Carlisle Gatewood, from the May 30, 1947, issue of The Seattle Times
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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.

Artile from the front page of the November 18, 1915, Seattle Star, on the death of William Holt
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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).

Sue Bird on the court in August 2018. Photograph by Flickr user Lorie Shaull, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic

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.)

Overhead directional sign on the northwest corner of Denny Way where 2nd Avenue becomes Sue Bird Court N. The First United Methodist Church of Seattle is in the background. Seattle’s first church, it was founded in 1853. It has been at its current location since 2010. Photograph by Benjamin Lukoff, November 8, 2024. Copyright © 2024 Benjamin Lukoff. All rights reserved.
Overhead directional sign on the southeast corner of Denny Way where 2nd Avenue becomes Sue Bird Court N. The Pacific Science Center and its parking garage are behind those trees. Photograph by Benjamin Lukoff, November 8, 2024. Copyright © 2024 Benjamin Lukoff. All rights reserved.
Southwest corner of the intersection where these streets meet: Lenny Wilkens Way coming from the west, Thomas Street (pedestrian) coming from the east, Seattle Storm Way (pedestrian) coming from the north, and Sue Bird Court N coming from the south. Discerning observers can tell Lenny Wilkens Way is an official name and Seattle Storm Way an honorary one because the former’s sign is green and the latter’s is brown. Sue Bird Court is an official renaming but the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) incorrectly put up a brown sign (with no directional designation, as would be proper for an honorary name) and left the 2nd Avenue N name in place! Hopefully that will be fixed soon. Climate Pledge Arena, built for the 1962 World’s Fair as the Washington State Pavilion and subsequently known as the Coliseum and KeyArena, is in the distance. Photograph by Benjamin Lukoff, September 9, 2024. Copyright © 2024 Benjamin Lukoff. All rights reserved

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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.

Detail of 1912 Baist atlas of Seattle showing current location of Woodside Place
Detail of 1912 Baist atlas of Seattle showing current location of Woodside Place, south of W Myrtle Street (now SW Myrtle Street) just southwest of Gatewood Elementary School. The vacant land shaded in pink as and noted as belonging to Herbert S. Upper is now part of Lincoln Park (along Puget Sound) and Solstice Park, formerly Lincoln Park Annex (to the east, between what are now Fauntleroy Way SW and 44th Avenue SW).
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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).

Street sign at corner of Ward Street and Ward Place
Photograph by Benjamin Lukoff, February 2024. Copyright © 2024 Benjamin Lukoff. All rights reserved.

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.

Article in the December 22, 1903, issue of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer regarding East Queen Anne Drive, now Ward Place
Article in the December 22, 1903, issue of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer

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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.

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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.

Portion of plat of Carleton Park showing original course of Montvale Court W
Portion of plat of Carleton Park showing original course of Montvale Court W, over half of which is now Montvale Place W
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Montvale Court W

Like Viewmont Way W, Crestmont Place W, Eastmont Way W, Westmont Way W, and Piedmont Place W, this street was created in 1915 as part of the plat of Carleton Park, their common mont element referring to the fact that, as The Seattle Times wrote, the “entire district commands an unobstructible view of the Cascade and Olympic Mountains.” Like Piedmont Place W, Montvale Court W lies at the foot of the western Magnolia hill as it slopes down to Pleasant Valley (of which vale is of course a variant).

Montvale Court W begins at 35th Avenue W south of Viewmont Way W and goes just over 300 feet northeast to Montvale Place W. (When it was originally platted, it formed a horseshoe-shaped loop back to 35th, but at some point the eastern and southeastern part of the street was renamed Montvale Place W.)

Portion of plat of Carleton Park showing original course of Montvale Court W
Portion of plat of Carleton Park showing original course of Montvale Court W
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Chris Curtis Way

In March 2019, the block of University Way NE between NE 50th Street and NE 52nd Street was given the honorary name of Chris Curtis Way. This block is home to the weekly, year-round University District Farmers Market. Founded in 1993 by Chris Curtis and others, it was the first of what are now seven farmers markets spread across the city. As the city council resolution states, Curtis received this honor for, among other things,

…Organiz[ing] the first neighborhood farmers markets in Seattle devoted exclusively to local, small-scale family farms, which focus on good land stewardship and biodiversity and are essential components of a healthy environment, thriving local economy, and safe food system; and… help[ing] to preserve farmers’ livelihoods, revitalize neighborhoods, and support and strengthen Washington’s small family farm industry.

Curtis retired as executive director of the Neighborhood Farmers Market Alliance in 2018.

Chris Curtis Way sign, University Way NE, Seattle
Chris Curtis Way sign, University Way NE at NE 50th Street, February 6, 2024. Photograph by Zev Handel, Copyright © 2024 Zev Handel. All rights reserved.
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Candy Cane Lane

It’s that time of year again, when NE Park Road and Park Road NE (which form a loop connecting Ravenna Avenue NE and 21st Avenue NE north of NE Ravenna Boulevard) transform themselves into Candy Lane Lane. A Christmas tradition which began 75 years ago, it’s, as local historian Valarie Bunn describes it,

A fun family holiday event in northeast Seattle… a cluster of houses all decked out in lights and themed decorations.… Pedestrians are welcome at all times, and you are encouraged to walk through for a closer look at the lights and decorations. 

Visit her blog post or the Candy Cane Lane Facebook page for more details. The display runs through January 1.

Candy Cane Lane Season's Greetings sign, December 2013
Season’s Greetings from Candy Cane Lane sign, December 2013. Photograph by Flickr user Frank Fujimoto, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic
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Seattle Storm Way

This pedestrianized stretch of 2nd Avenue N on the Seattle Center campus was renamed in 2018 after the Seattle Storm WNBA team, themselves so named “because of the weather here and what the team plans to do in the league.” Founded in 2000, their home court is Climate Pledge Arena, located between Seattle Storm Way and 1st Avenue N along Lenny Wilkens Way (formerly the 100 block of Thomas Street)

Before the 1962 Century 21 Exposition that brought Seattle the Space Needle and Monorail, 2nd Avenue N (earlier Poplar Avenue) continued north to Mercer Street and up Queen Anne Hill. The stretch between Thomas and Mercer Streets would remain a public right-of-way after its pedestrianization for nearly 30 years until it was vacated in 1991 at the request of Seattle Center “for the purpose of security and event control.”

Seattle Storm Way begins at Lenny Wilkens Way and goes a block north to the old Harrison Street right-of-way; the walkway between there and Mercer Street remains unnamed.

Seattle Storm logo
Seattle Storm logo