City of Seattle annexes the Town of South Park on May 3, 1907.

  • By Greg Lange
  • Posted 5/28/2001
  • HistoryLink.org Essay 3316
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On May 3, 1907, the City of Seattle annexes the Town of South Park, located south of downtown Seattle on the bank of the Duwamish River. South Park had voted for incorporation in 1902.

The boundaries of the 0.87 square mile town were approximately 1st Avenue S on the west, SW Roxbury Street on the south, and the Duwamish River on the east and north. A few months later, during October 1907, the Seattle City Council passed another ordinance (17213) renaming the streets of the former town.

Immediately after passing the South Park annexation ordinance (15917) the Seattle City Council passed another annexing the City of Columbia to Seattle. Between 1905 and 1910 the Seattle City Council annexed eight towns with mayors and city councils. These were South Seattle (1905), Southeast Seattle (1907), Ravenna (1907), South Park (1907), Columbia (1907), Ballard (1907), West Seattle (1907), and Georgetown (1910).

The annexations of the eight towns plus an unincorporated area of Rainier Beach doubled the area of Seattle from 34 square miles to 69 square miles.


Sources:

Myra L. Phelps and Leslie Blanchard, Public Works in Seattle: A Narrative History: The Engineering Department 1875-1975 (Seattle, Seattle Engineering Department, 1978), 218, 222, 224, 230; City of Seattle, Municipal Archives Program, Guide to the Archives of the City of Seattle ed. by Scott Cline (Seattle: City of Seattle Office of the Comptroller, 1988), 159.


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