Ravenna Park and Cowen Park comprise a single contiguous recreation and green space in the

Ravenna Ravenna ( , , also ; rgn, Ravèna) is the capital city of the Province of Ravenna, in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy. It was the capital city of the Western Roman Empire from 408 until its collapse in 476. It then served as the c ...

neighborhood of

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region o ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. These

public park An urban park or metropolitan park, also known as a municipal park (North America) or a public park, public open space, or municipal gardens ( UK), is a park in cities and other incorporated places that offer recreation and green space to r ...

s encompass the

ravine A ravine is a landform that is narrower than a canyon and is often the product of streambank erosion.Ravenna Creek flows.

History

The ravine that is the central feature of Cowen and Ravenna Park was formed when melt-off from the Vashon Glacial Ice Sheet formed Lake Russell and proceeded to cut drainage ravines through new glacial fill. Lake Russell disappeared when the ice sheet retreated north of the

Strait of Juan de Fuca The Strait of Juan de Fuca (officially named Juan de Fuca Strait in Canada) is a body of water about long that is the Salish Sea's outlet to the Pacific Ocean. The international boundary between Canada and the United States runs down the centre ...

, but some features remained, including the Green Lake drainage basin, which continued to empty through the Ravenna ravine into

Lake Washington Lake Washington is a large freshwater lake adjacent to the city of Seattle. It is the largest lake in King County and the second largest natural lake in the state of Washington, after Lake Chelan. It borders the cities of Seattle on the west, ...

. The deeper pockets of the basin became Bitter Lake,

Haller Lake Haller Lake is a small lake and neighborhood in north central Seattle, Washington, named for Theodore N. Haller, who platted the neighborhood in 1905. His father, Granville O. Haller, was one of Seattle's early settlers, an army officer who ama ...

and Green Lake. Many creeks and brooks and springs fed into Green Lake, whose outlet was on the east side of the route of Ravenna Boulevard, in a deepening ravine which became Cowen and Ravenna parks. Ravenna Creek's original source was from Green, Haller, and Bitter lakes, then the Cowen Park ravine west wall when the watershed was diverted to sewers (1908–1948). The water table is relatively shallow, held by the extensive layer of clays that underlay the metro region. The creek source is actually seeping from the original west wall of the ravine, even though the gulch has been partially filled at the southwest corner of Cowen Park. The inscription on the gateway to Cowen Park states, "In memory of Charles Cowen, who in 1906 gave to the City of Seattle the twelve acres comprising this park." Cowen (actual surname Cohen, changed upon his arrival to America) was an English native who came from a family of South African diamond merchants. Upon his arrival in Seattle in 1900 he purchased 40 acres of logged-off land around the present day park, later platting the Cowen Park Addition. After the nearby

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seatt ...

campus was chosen for the site of the Alaska-Yukon Exposition, the area underwent a rapid urbanization. As well as numerous houses, Cowen built the Ye College Inn, which he strategically located near the exposition's main entrance. For many decades of Seattle city history, the Ravenna Park ravine had been ignored by loggers and farmers and still possessed full old-growth timber rising nearly .Wilma (2001-08-20), Essay 3502
(1.1) See also list of newspaper articles referenced by WilmaVan Pelt (2001), pp. xxii, 181–185, 187–191. Most of the land was owned by mining and real estate magnate William Wirt Beck who, in addition to preserving the ravine's trees for park land, would give Ravenna its name (after Ravenna, Italy) and would plat one of the first subdivisions in the neighborhood in 1890 around the home he built that still stands East of the park at NE 60th Street and 26th Avenue NE. The trees remained through the

Alaska–Yukon–Pacific Exposition The Alaska–Yukon–Pacific Exposition, acronym AYP or AYPE, was a world's fair held in Seattle in 1909 publicizing the development of the Pacific Northwest. It was originally planned for 1907 to mark the 10th anniversary of the Klondike Gold R ...

of 1909, at which they were featured exhibitions. Public controversy about them declined after their gradual disappearance in suspicious circumstances by 1926. Today, none of that size remain anywhere in the world.Higgins (1999-07-30), "Traffic" In 1919, after the death of Theodore Roosevelt, the city renamed the park "Roosevelt Park", but Seattleites petitioned to revert to the original name in 1931. In the mid-1960s, the Cowen Park ravine was largely filled using freeway construction spoils. The City of Seattle planned to use the ravine for staging a comprehensive stormwater drainage piping project in 1986, galvanizing the neighborhoods of the watershed to protect and restore the park. Since 1991, the park has seen major restoration by residents of neighborhoods in collaboration with the City.

Description

Ravenna Park contains and was purchased from developers in 1911. Cowen Park covers . The current source of Ravenna Creek is the west face of the ravine along Brooklyn Avenue NE and a small

wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (Anoxic waters, anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in t ...

in the northwest corner, at NE 62nd Street. In 2006, a section of Ravenna Creek through the southeastern end of the park was

daylight Daylight is the combination of all direct and indirect sunlight during the daytime. This includes direct sunlight, diffuse sky radiation, and (often) both of these reflected by Earth and terrestrial objects, like landforms and buildings. Sunligh ...

ed, having formerly flowed into a storm drain. The parks are crossed from north to south by the

Cowen Park Bridge The Cowen Park Bridge is a reinforced concrete arch bridge in Seattle, Washington. The bridge has a length of and carries 15th Avenue NE across a ravine in the Cowen Park. The bridges acts as a dividing line in the Ravenna-Cowen Park contiguous ...

, on 15th Avenue Northeast on the boundary between the two parks, and the 20th Avenue Northeast Bridge (also known as the

Ravenna Park Bridge The 20th Avenue NE Bridge (also known as the Ravenna Park Bridge) is a three-hinged, steel, lattice-arched bridge that spans a ravine in Seattle's Ravenna Park. It was designed by Frank M. Johnson under the direction of city engineer Arthur Dimock ...

), closed to motorized traffic since 1975. Both bridges are on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

. There is also a

rail trail A rail trail is a shared-use path on railway right of way. Rail trails are typically constructed after a railway has been abandoned and the track has been removed, but may also share the right of way with active railways, light rail, or streetc ...

along the southern edge of the park where David Denny's Ravenna streetcar line once ran.

Ravenna Park

Ravenna Park is a wooded ravine which connects two picnic areas just north of the University District. The park is open to hikers, joggers, bikers, and picnickers. The park also features a play area for children, a wading pool, ballfield, trails, and tennis courts.

Flora

The parks are mostly forested with native Bigleaf Maple,

Douglas Fir The Douglas fir (''Pseudotsuga menziesii'') is an evergreen conifer species in the pine family, Pinaceae. It is native to western North America and is also known as Douglas-fir, Douglas spruce, Oregon pine, and Columbian pine. There are three v ...

, Grand Fir,

Western Hemlock ''Tsuga heterophylla'', the western hemlock or western hemlock-spruce, is a species of hemlock native to the west coast of North America, with its northwestern limit on the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska, and its southeastern limit in northern Sonoma ...

Western White Pine Western white pine (''Pinus monticola''), also called silver pine and California mountain pine, is a species of pine in the family Pinaceae. It occurs in mountain ranges of northwestern North America. It is the state tree of Idaho. Description ...

and Western Redcedar. Nonindigenous trees include Coast Redwood,

Incense-cedar ''Calocedrus'', the incense cedar (alternatively spelled incense-cedar), is a genus of coniferous trees in the cypress family Cupressaceae first described as a genus in 1873. It is native to eastern Asia and western North America. The generic ...

, and Western Larch. There are workparties in the park held by the Seattle Parks Department, particularly in April and May.Seattle Parks & Recreation: Volunteer Opportunities
/ref> A volunteer group, Friends of Ravenna Ravine, works to remove invasive species, such as English Ivy and

Himalayan Blackberry ''Rubus armeniacus'', the Himalayan blackberry or Armenian blackberry, is a species of ''Rubus'' in the blackberry group ''Rubus'' subgenus ''Rubus'' series ''Discolores'' (P.J. Müll.) Focke. It is native to Armenia and Northern Iran, and wide ...

from the park and restore native vegetation.

References

Footnotes

General references

* * * *
Cowen-Ravenna Park Trail Map
Seattle Parks and Recreation.

External links

* {{Protected areas of Seattle Parks in Seattle Ravines Ravenna, Seattle