The property from above in the summer of 2022
Funding to create a new city park out of 1.6 acres of North Capitol Hill land donated after the death of philanthropist Kay Bullitt won’t be available for another five years and the 1955-built house at the center of the property is on its way to becoming a protected landmark but there are hopes for opening the space for use in the interim, Seattle Parks and Recreation said last week.
In a summer update on the 1125 Harvard Ave E project, the parks department says negotiations are underway to establish architectural protections to preserve the Bullitt home.
Meanwhile, the earliest Seattle Park District funding “for the full design and development of the entire site” won’t be in place until 2029.
Currently, the 1955-built A-frame style house at the center of the property is on its way to becoming an official city landmark and would be preserved as part of the new park plan. Settle Parks said last week it is negotiating with the Landmarks Preservation Board “to determine which site or house elements are specifically protected or exempted, also known as ‘Controls and Incentives,'”
“The controls will directly affect how the site and house may be renovated for future uses,” the department update reads.
City officials say they hope to continue working with the public and neighbors of the property in one of the wealthiest areas of the city to open the park in steps until the full funding is available.
“SPR would like to acknowledge that this is a unique opportunity for the city as an agency and for the community,” Parks and Recreation says in its update on the park. “As we move forward with bringing this site into SPR’s inventory, we recognize that there are key factors in transitioning from being a private yard and garden to being under public ownership.”
CHS reported in January on the likely 2029 timeline.
Seattle Parks has also said it was hoping to create private-public partnerships to raise money needed to create the new park.
While the Harvard Ave E project moves slowly forward, this summer has brought construction on a much smaller Seattle Parks project in the area. At 19th and Madison, ground was finally broken on tiny Cayton Corner Park, named to honor Black history at an intersection of Capitol Hill and the Central District.
What shape and form any interim use of the Bullitt public land will take, meanwhile, is yet to be seen but some may hope for the property to return to some of its past community uses. Many area owners remember Bullitt opening her property up for use regularly as a neighborhood dog park.
The land and 69-year-old home on the property left to the city after the death of the philanthropist Bullitt stretches out on the northwest slopes of Capitol Hill in the prestigious Harvard-Belmont Landmark District.
CHS reported in 2022 on the early planning for the new park project including a survey that planners said showed preferences for developing the new park land “as a quiet, contemplative place” while making space for the Cass Turnbull Garden as part of the site, a project from Seattle nonprofit Plant Amnesty honoring its late founder.
The Bullitt property will one day be home to an official city park
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I’m excited about this new park and welcome any additional green spaces to the neighborhood. But I implore/beg the city to first consider improvements to existing parks. Bellevue Place Park has been a neglected boggy hillside of land for as many decades as I can remember. Trees are frequently left to die. The expensive Melrose project inexplicably stops AT the park, though the path-through continues, usually past scenic drug deals, encampments, and piles of garbage dumped from people too lazy or poor to go to the recycling center. It would be wonderful to have a dog run, P-patch, or playground in this park, anything to activate it and fill it with people and pets, instead of violent people, taggers, and drug deals.
Cal Anderson park don’t look that nice either. I don’t know if those responsible for parks doing their best.
Seattle doesn’t need another park that’s just going to be neglected. I suggest the City takes care of all the exhisting parks that are already in really bad shape.