Capitol Hill
The Capitol Hill area of Seattle is second only to Belltown in population density. The hill, as it’s known by Seattleites is known for the eclectic, counterculture and gay lifestyles. Capitol Hill has become the place to buy a home in Seattle. Some of the finest mansions in the Seattle area are located in Capitol Hill. Capitol Hill encompasses quite a large area, bounded roughly by I-5 to the West, Madison Avenue to the South, 23rd Ave to the East, and Boyer to the North.
Capitol Hill is indeed hilly, with six of Seattle’s steepest street grades providing some of the best views of Downtown Seattle, Lake Washington and Lake Union. The main business corridors on Capitol Hill are Broadway, Pike/Pine, 15th Ave. and Olive Way. This is the trendy area of Seattle, thought by some to be one of the earliest places to find the “grunge” scene. With hundreds of retail shops, vintage clothing, restaurants, bars and clubs, Capitol Hill is the happening scene in Seattle.
Parks in the area include Cal Anderson Park, Luisa Boren Park, Roanoke Park and Thomas Street Park. Volunteer Park hosts the Seattle Asian Art Museum and the Volunteer Park Conservatory. The Harvard Belmont Landmark District and the Temple De Hirsch Sinai are also located here.
With condominiums in any price range you can think of and homes from $500,000 to $1 million plus range, This Seattle neighborhood has something to offer everyone. Tech professionals like to locate in Capitol for the ambience and the quick commute to downtown and tech companies. Artist love Capitol Hill for the culture, and free mindset that all Capitol Hill residences seem to share. And everyone knows it’s the place to be if you want night life, music, shopping and fine food.
History
Capitol Hill's development dates back to the last decade of the 19th century, and increased in pace during the first two decades of the 20th century. It's likely that the often-repeated explanation that Capitol Hill was so named by the expectation that it would house the state capitol is false. This was apparently true of Denny Hill (which was destroyed by a regrade project). Capitol Hill was probably named by the developer of Millionaires' Row along 14th Ave., which he named Capitol Hill after a similar development he had undertaken in Denver.
The focal point of early Capitol Hill was Volunteer Park. In 1901, City Park was renamed Volunteer Park in honor of the veterans of the Spanish American War. In 1903, the park was incorporated into Seattle's new parks system designed by John Charles Olmsted. In 1907, the water tower was built in the park.The development of Volunteer Park reflects the development happening in its near vicinity. The earliest neighborhoods of Capitol Hill were developed nearby. The Stevens neighborhood (bounded by 15th Avenue East, East Galer, East Aloha, and 22nd. Avenue East), Millionaires' Row (the original Capitol Hill) along the ridge that runs along 14th Avenue East from the park towards the south, and the Harvard Belmont area (bounded roughly by St. Marks Cathedral, 10th Avenue East, I-5, and East Roy Street). These neighborhoods are home to some of Seattle's oldest and most stylish mansions.South Capitol Hill was developed around the same time, with Broadway High School built in 1902 at Pine and Broadway. The high school was later razed to build Seattle Central Community College, but its auditorium was retained and converted into the Broadway Performance Hall.Several fraternal orders also called the Pine and Broadway intersection home. Two of these buildings remain. One is the Oddfellows Hall which now houses Freehold Theatre, the Velocity Dance Company, the Century Ballroom, and a number of other arts organization venues and offices. Another old fraternal hall is now the Egyptian Theater.By the time of the Great Depression, the millionaires had been joined by numerous apartment dwellers, with many whimsical tudor-styled apartment buildings designed by Frederick Anhalt. These are characterized by their tudor stucco facades and turret stairways.The Depression was responsible for some of Capitol Hill's notable modernist architecture. The stark lines of the original Seattle Art Museum (now the Asian Art Museum) are a result of scaling back the original design because of the depression. The same is true of the austere architecture of St. Mark's Cathedral, and the structural concrete romanesque St Joseph's Church at 18th Avenue East and East Aloha.In the early '60s, the I-5 freeway was built to the west of Capitol Hill, cutting much of the hill off from the City. As a consequence the area went into a period of decline from which it recovered in the late '70s and early '80s with the development of the hill as a bohemian, gay, and yuppie community.
"http://Seattle.wikia.com/wiki/capitol_hill"
