GROWTH OF SEATTLE’S GREAT PARK SYSTEM 
While the beginning of park devel- 
opment in Seattle dates back to 1884, 
when D. T. Denny and wife gave to 
the city its first park, Denny Park, 
then known as Seattle Cemetery, and 
the first Park Board was appointed 
to look after the removal of bodies 
from the cemetery, the real working 
period of the department began in 
1903. 
Prior to 1900 the entire park area 
of the city consisted of Denny, Kin- 
near and Volunteer Park with other 
small unimproved tracts, an area of 
78 acres, with not a single playground 
or a foot of driveway or boulevard. 
In 1900, the City Council purchased 
Woodland and Washington Parks. 
Considerable public interest was 
aroused and there seemed to be a 
general awakening to the fact that 
Seattle had an opportunity to estab- 
lish a world famous park and boule- 
vard system. 
The first step in this direction was 
the employment of Olmsted Brothers, 
landscape architects of Brookline, 
Mass., to prepare plans for a com- 
plete park, playground and boulevard 
system. Mr. J. C. Olmsted, senior 
member of the firm, spent several 
weeks during the summer of 1903, 
goin.g over the ground thoroughly 
and submitting a complete compre- 
hensive report and plan which was 
adopted by the City Council, October 
19th, 1903, after having been ap- 
proved by the Park Board. 
Under an amendment to the city 
charter the control and jurisdiction 
of all park areas in the city was 
vested absolutely in the Board of 
Park Commissioners and it was pro- 
vided that an annual tax levy of not 
less than three-fourths of one mill 
should be levied for park purposes 
and that this revenue as well as ten 
per cent of all the licenses and fines 
collected by the city, should be placed 
in a City Park Fund, which fund can 
be expended only by the Park Board. 
With the establishment of the Park 
Board on a firm basis, a marked 
change took place, the existing park 
areas were improved and beautified 
and became so popular with the peo 
pie that public sentiment demanded 
that the system be extended by the 
acquisition of additional areas, in ac- 
cordance with the Olmsted Plan. As 
the annual revenues would not be 
sufficient to permit of this, a bond 
issue of $500,000 was submitted to a 
vote of the people in 1906 and was 
authorized. This sum was evidently 
expended to the satisfaction of the 
people as the demand for further ex- 
tension and improvements increased 
and in 1908 a bond issue of $1,000,000 
was submitted to a vote of the people 
and carried by a sweeping majority, 
lis gave the Board ample funds 
WOODLAND PARK’S STATELY FIRS, SEATTLE, WASH. 
