Colman Park is a

park A park is an area of natural, semi-natural or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and recreation or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. Urban parks are urban green space, green spaces set aside for recreation inside t ...

in the

Mount Baker Mount Baker (; ), also known as Koma Kulshan or simply Kulshan, is a active glacier-covered andesitic stratovolcano in the Cascade Volcanic Arc and the North Cascades of Washington State in the United States. Mount Baker has the second-most ...

neighborhood A neighbourhood (Commonwealth English) or neighborhood (American English) is a geographically localized community within a larger town, city, suburb or rural area, sometimes consisting of a single street and the buildings lining it. Neigh ...

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...

, located just south of the

Lacey V. Murrow Memorial Bridge The Lacey V. Murrow Memorial Bridge is a floating bridge in the Seattle metropolitan area of the U.S. state of Washington. It is one of the Interstate 90 floating bridges that carries the eastbound lanes of Interstate 90 across Lake Washi ...

(

Interstate 90 Interstate 90 (I-90) is an east–west transcontinental freeway and the longest Interstate Highway in the United States at . It begins in Seattle, Washington, and travels through the Pacific Northwest, Mountain states, Mountain West, Great Pla ...

) along

Lake Washington Lake Washington () is a large freshwater lake adjacent to the city of Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the largest lake in King County, Washington, King County and the second largest natural lake in the state of Washington (state), Was ...

and inland to 31st Avenue S. It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 2020, alongside the adjacent Mount Baker Park.

History

In 1881 the

Town Council A town council, city council or municipal council is a form of local government for small municipalities. Usage of the term varies under different jurisdictions. Republic of Ireland In 2002, 49 urban district councils and 26 town commissi ...

authorized the first "municipal" water company which took over a maze of privately owned systems and was authorized to charge for water service. Appropriately named " The Spring Hill Water Co.", the needs of a growing town were served by building a pumping plant "all the way over here" on Lake Washington; the year was 1886 and the pump was steam operated. Failure of the main pump brought the designing engineers from the East, who were unable to find the difficulty. A Seattle engineer, James M. Colman, went to work and 36 hours (non-stop) later he had the pump back in service. This pump station worked "to heartbreak" during the Great Fire of Seattle in 1889. In 1907, the Park Board was given jurisdiction of the plant site plus part of the pipeline right-of-way up the hill. Following the route chosen by the

Olmsted Brothers The Olmsted Brothers company was a Landscape architecture, landscape architectural firm in the United States, established in 1898 by brothers John Charles Olmsted (1852–1920) and Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. (1870–1957), sons of the landscape ar ...

, Frink Boulevard was extended southward curving down the slope, joining

Lake Washington Boulevard Lake Washington Boulevard is a scenic, approximately , road through Seattle, Washington, that hugs Lake Washington for much of the route. There are views of the lake, small sections of rainforest, meadows, and views of the Cascade mountains. A ...

, coming up from the south along the lakeshore. Additional gifts plus the purchase of property along the north side widened the park, and in 1909 the State granted the shorelands for park purposes. In 1910 the James M. Colman Estate filed a plat in which the "head" of the slope was deeded for park purposes and the "strip" from 31st down to the lake was named to the memory of Mr. Colman In August 2002, Joseph Jerome Farris, a Senior Judge on the

United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (in case citations, 9th Cir.) is the U.S. federal court of appeals that has appellate jurisdiction over the U.S. district courts for the following federal judicial districts: * Distric ...

, had 120 mature

bigleaf maple ''Acer macrophyllum'', the bigleaf maple or Oregon maple, is a large deciduous tree in the genus '' Acer''. It is native to western North America. In addition to uses by animals, it is of some culinary and woodworking interest. Description Big ...

and indigenous cherry trees in Colman Park cut down to improve the view of

from his house. Some of the trees were more than forty years old and over fifty-five feet tall.

Norm Maleng Norman "Kim" Maleng (September 17, 1938 – May 24, 2007) was an American attorney and politician who served as the King County Prosecuting Attorney for 28 years. He was also an architect of Washington's Sentencing Reform Act. Early life ...

, the

King County Prosecuting Attorney The King County Prosecuting Attorney is a nonpartisan elected official in King County, Washington. The prosecuting attorney leads the King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office, and prosecutes all felonies (as well as misdemeanors in unincorporat ...

, declined to file felony malicious

mischief Mischief (or malicious mischief) is the name for a class of criminal offenses that are defined differently in different legal jurisdictions. While the wrongful acts will often involve what is popularly described as vandalism, there can be a lega ...

charges. The

Seattle City Attorney The Seattle City Attorney is a non-partisan elected official in Seattle, Washington whose job is to "prosecute people for misdemeanor offenses, defend the city against lawsuits, and gives legal advice to the city". Since 2022, the position has bee ...

fined Judge Farris $500,000. After Judge Farris did not pay the fine on time the city placed a lien on his 8,000 square-foot

house. The federal judge maintained the trees were cut down due to a miscommunication with his Vietnamese gardener, which the gardener denied. A jury heard testimony from the gardener when Judge Farris sued his homeowner's insurer for coverage of the fine. Believing the gardener, the jury found against Judge Farris. Judge Farris finally paid the full fine amount, now with interest $618,000, in May 2006.

References

External links

ColmanPark.orgParks Department page on Colman Park
{{Protected areas of Seattle Parks in Seattle 1910 establishments in Washington (state)