Vecindarios de Seattle: Beacon Hill -- Historia Abreviada

  • By David Wilma
  • Posted 2/21/2001
  • HistoryLink.org Essay 3004
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Beacon Hill tiene vista hacia el centro de Seattle desde el sudeste y se distingue por el edificio de 16 pisos del Centro Médico Pacific que se eleva desde su extremo norte. La colina se extiende hacia el sudeste desde First Hill entre el Río Duwamish y Rainier Valley, y su elevación alcanza los 350 pies. Aunque Beacon Hill parece tan cercana al centro de Seattle, la geografía ha obrado para mantener la particularidad del vecindario. La colina vio asentamientos dispersos desde la década de 1850, peropermaneció mayormente sin desarrollar por varias décadas más. El veterano del Ejército de la Unión y promotor inmobiliario M. Harwood Young (1846-1913) dio el nombre a la colina en 1889 según la histórica Beacon Hill en Boston, y construyó una línea de tranvías que conectaba el vecindario con el centro de la ciudad. Cambios de nivel a lo largo de las calles Jackson y Dearborn cortaron a través de la colina para dar acceso desde el centro a Rainier Valley, requiriendo un puente a Beacon Hill a lo largo de 12th Avenue S. Los depósitos para el sistema de abastecimiento de agua de Cedar River para la ciudad se construyeron en la cima de la colina (donde un depósito pequeño había recibido anteriormente el agua del Lago Washington), y los terrenos adyacentes se convirtieron en el Campo de Golf Jefferson Park. El Hospital U.S. Marine (luego nombrado Centro Médico Pacific) se construyó en la década de 1930. Luego de la Segunda Guerra Mundial se construyó un gran hospital para veteranos al sur de Jefferson Park, en la parte más alta de la colina. La carretera Interestatal 5 cortó la ladera oeste de Beacon Hill en la década de 1960.


Sources:

Duwamish Diary (Seattle: Cleveland High School, 1949), 90-109; Greg Lange, "King County's First White Settlers," Cyberpedia Library, HistoryLink.org Website (www.HistoryLink.org); Alan J. Stein, "Beacon Hill Library and its Neighborhood," Ibid.; David Wilma, "Sand Point Naval Air Station: 1920-1970," Ibid., "Seattle's first military road is completed in 1860," Timeline Library, Ibid.; "Seattle pesthouse shelters 27 smallpox patients on December 26, 1892," Ibid.; "Interstate 5 completed from Everett to Tacoma on January 31, 1967," Ibid.; "Chicano activists occupy abandoned school that becomes El Centro on October 11, 1972," Ibid.; Clarence Bagley, The History of Seattle, (Chicago: S.J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1916), 357-363; James Bush, "Prickly Holly," The Weekly, March 11-17, 1999, (wwww.seattleweekly.com); "Pac Med: Looking Back," Pacific Medical Centers Website (www.pacmed.org); Nina Shapiro, "Dressing up the Projects," Ibid., December 23-29, 1999; Don Sherwood, "Jefferson Park Golf Course," Interpretive Essays on Seattle Parks, Vol. 3, (Seattle: Seattle Parks and Recreation Department, 1974); J. Martin McOmber, "Amazon Searches for Big Office Digs," The Seattle Times, February 8, 2005 (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/home/index.html); Eric Pryne, " Wright Runstad Faces Foreclosure on Former Amazon HQ," Ibid., September 27, 2011.
Note: This essay was corrected (date of the U.S. Marine Hospital) on June 29, 2007, and was updated and revised on October 31, 2011; it was again corrected on January 13, 2012.


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