Who We Are

Lakeridge, Washington, unincorporated King County

History

Lakeridge Park and Taylor Creek (Seattle)

Lakeridge Park occupies more than 35 acres of Taylor Creek and Deadhorse Canyon in southeast Seattle. The park is located south of the intersection of 68th Avenue S and Rainier Avenue S. Taylor Creek is the fourth largest creek in Seattle and is the site of an urban creek restoration program that will attract salmon back to the creek to spawn.

Taylor Creek is named after the Taylor Mill, which sawed logs on the southeast shore of Lake Washington in the 1800s. In 1909, homesteader and logger Charles J. Walker named the ravine Dead horse Canyon after the death of a horse that had long roamed the area and had become a pet of pioneer children.

In 1928, developer E. S. Goodwin filed a plat in the area and called it Lakeridge. The Seattle Planning Commission adopted that name for the neighborhood in 1947. The steep canyon did not lend itself to the construction of houses, so that same year, 30.5 acres was deeded to the city as a park. In the 1950s, an additional five acres was condemned by the city as a playground.

On April 19, 2000, under the leadership of Seattle Public Utilities, Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation, Cascadia Quest, and Friends of Deadhorse Canyon, volunteers planted native vegetation. Seattle Public Utilities replaced two culverts and when a culvert is replaced under Rainier Avenue South, salmon fry will be released into the creek. If the efforts are successful, the salmon will return to the creek to spawn.

We are bounded to the north by Seattle and Lake Washington, to the west and south by Seattle, Washington and to the east and southeast by Bryn Mawr, another unincorporated community. Lakeridge Park and Taylor Creek are directly to the west.

This blog welcomes the Lakeridge Community to voice their local news, events and community issues that effect us here in Lakeridge, Washington, an unincorporated part of King County but considered a part of Seattle for over 80 years.