Queen Anne Hill is a neighborhood and a hill in Seattle, Washington. The hill is the highest named hill in Seattle, Washington, with a maximum elevation of 456 feet (139 m), though the highest point in the city is the aptly named High Point in West Seattle, at 520 feet (158 m). Queen Anne is situated just north of Seattle Center and just south of Fremont across the Lake Washington Ship Canal. The hill early became a popular spot for the city's economic and cultural elite to build their mansions (the name derives from the architectural style, typical of so many of the early homes).
As a neighborhood toponym, Queen Anne can refer either to the entire hill or to the central residential and business district at the top of the hill. It is to be distinguished from Lower Queen Anne, also known as Uptown which refers to the area at the southern base of the hill, just north and west of Seattle Center. Queen Anne is bounded on the north by the Fremont Cut of the Ship Canal, beyond which is Fremont; on the west by 15th Avenue W. and Elliott Avenue W., beyond which is Interbay, Magnolia, and Elliott Bay ; on the east by Aurora Avenue N. (Washington State Route 99), beyond which is Westlake and Lake Union; and on the south by Denny Way, beyond which is Belltown. Seattle Pacific University is located on its north slope across from Fremont. Its main thoroughfares are Gilman Drive W.; 15th, Elliott, 10th, 6th, and 3rd Avenues W.; and Queen Anne, 5th, Taylor, and Aurora Avenues N. (north- and southbound) and Denny Way; Mercer, Boston, W. McGraw, and W. Nickerson Streets; and Queen Anne Drive (east- and westbound). Portions of several of these streets reflect a comprehensive boulevard design by the Olmsted Brothers architectural firm, Queen Anne Boulevard, intended as a 3-mile loop around the crown of the hill. The design was never fully executed, but it remains part of the Seattle Parks System. Queen Anne can be reached from Interstate 5 by taking the Mercer Street Exit (Exit 167). Filipino-American author and activist Carlos Bulosan is buried in the cemetery on the north side of the hill.
History
White settlement of Queen Anne stemmed from the arrival of the Denny Party at West Seattle's Alki Point in November 1851. The next year, David Denny staked a claim to the 320 acres (1.3 km²) of Lower Queen Anne land today bounded by Elliott Bay to the west, Lake Union to the east, Mercer Street to the north, and Denny Way to the south. Development of the hill, called at various times North Seattle, Galer Hill, and Eden Hill, was slow, but the arrival of the Northern Pacific Railway (1883) and the Seattle, Lake Shore & Eastern Railroad (1887), the Great Seattle Fire of 1889, and the opening of three cable car lines to the top of the hill (1902), improved matters. The hill began to be called "Queen Anne" by 1885, after the Queen Anne style houses that dominated the area. The first television broadcast in the Pacific Northwest originated from KRSC's facilities at 3rd Avenue N. at Galer Street in 1948. In 1949, KING-TV bought KRSC; this was the first such transaction in the country's history. Three years later, KOMO installed its own tower, and KIRO followed suit in 1958. In 1962, Lower Queen Anne became the site of the Century 21 Exposition, a World's Fair. The fairgrounds are now the campus of Seattle Center, home to the Space Needle, Pacific Science Center, Experience Music Project, Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame, the north terminal of the Seattle monorail, and KeyArena, home of the Seattle SuperSonics, Seattle Storm, and Seattle Thunderbirds sports teams. Assistant United States Attorney Thomas C. Wales was shot in his home in the Queen Anne neighborhood on October 11, 2001, dying the next day of his wounds. The murder remains unsolved.
Education
Queen Anne is served by Seattle Public Schools. Schools in Queen Anne include:
- John Hay Elementary School (which has had three different buildings, all on Queen Anne Hill)
- McClure Middle School
- The Center School
- Seattle Country Day School
Two former schools on Queen Anne Hill are on the National Register of Historic Places; both are now condominium apartment buildings:
- Queen Anne High School
- Queen Anne School, later known as West Queen Anne School
