Wedgwood in Seattle History

The Yesler Swamp Boardwalk is a highly accessible route through the restoration area on Union Bay.

On Sunday, November 22nd at 2 PM everyone is invited to come on a guided walk through northeast Seattle’s wonderful urban amenity, the Yesler Swamp Trail.  The tour will be led by Professor Kern Ewing of the University of Washington’s Restoration Ecology Network.  On the tour you will see the progress on building a boardwalk, and the native plant restoration work.

Meet at 2 PM at the east parking lot of the UW Center for Urban Horticulture, 3501 NE 41st Street in Laurelhurst.  There is a suggested donation of $15 which will go toward finishing the boardwalk.  At 3 PM following the tour, everyone is invited to warm up with soup and cider at a neighborhood home.

The Town of Yesler circa 1902, looking east along NE 42nd Street. Photo courtesy of History of Laurelhurst.

Yesler Way in Seattle is named for Henry Yesler’s sawmill which was set up in 1853 at what is now Pioneer Square, and which was Seattle’s first economic entity.  In the 1880s Yesler built another sawmill at the present site of the Center for Urban Horticulture.  In 1888 the nearby blocks were platted as the Town of Yesler.  Yesler’s sawmill site in northeast Seattle was purchased from homesteader Joe Surber and later became the Laurelhurst neighborhood.