Seattle Press on Line - Arboretum Nominated for Landmark Status

Arboretum Nominated for Landmark Status

Bob Newhouse (left) and Joe Marshall at the Arboretum's gazebo, built by the Works Project Administration in the 1930s.

Nov 01, 2000 -- Seattle's historic Washington Park Arboretum has been nominated for landmark designation by the Arboretum Park Preservation Coalition (APPC), a citizens' group trying to block a $4.5 million construction plan for the city park. An administrative center, tourist shop and more parking lots are being proposed by the Arboretum and Botanical Garden Committee, made up of University, City and State representatives.

"It's wrong to spend our tax money to bulldoze the heart of Seattle's Olmsted legacy just so a few bureaucrats can have nicer offices," said Coalition leaders in a press statement. "Seattle's Critical Areas Ordinances protect the Arboretum as wildlife habitat and a special section of the city code preserves the Arboretum as 'open space park lands.'

"The bureaucrats want to offload the Arboretum and turn it into a money-making theme park, but even they estimate the construction budget will operate at an annual loss of over a million dollars. They also claim education is their goal--but they admit over half the new construction will be for office space. The Arboretum is not the place to build offices," said Coalition leaders.

Friends of Seattle's Olmsted parks assisted in researching for the nomination, which was privately funded.

Native Americans used Foster Island as a burial site, and later, Seattle contracted with the nationally prominent Olmsted Brothers firm in the early part of the century to design the Arboretum. The Olmsteds helped design a host of prominent parks nationally. In the thirties, the Works Progress Administration helped preserve the Arboretum, while in World War Two it was used to grow fast-spreading plants to use as camouflage at Boeing and military sites.

The public repeatedly fought off the University's attempts to fence off the Arboretum and charge admission fees, resulting in the protective city ordinances. Plans to bulldoze the park for a freeway, the Thompson Expressway, were also defeated in the seventies. Thousands have since enjoyed the Arboretum's natural and open space.

The APPC statement said developing the Arboretum would be like putting a McDonald's at the Market, or a shopping mall at Deception Pass.

For more information about the nomination, see the APPC web site: www.scn.org/arboretum.

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Wallis Bolz	Nov 07, 2000	Seattle, WA
Fine article. Corrections: Construction plan cost is $45 million, not $4.5. Coalition readers in photo are Bob Newhouse (Treasurer)and Joe Marshall (President/Chair).