Handwritten on verso: Madison Park, Lake Washington.

Warner 61

Access to the area [Madison Park] improved with the construction of the cable railway in the late 1880s, which spurred residential development. As a further enticement to development, Judge McGilvra set aside more than twenty acres of land for public use, which was eventually developed into Madison Park by 1890. At that time, streetcar lines often terminated at a popular attraction so as to encourage real estate development along the length of the line and to increase ridership outside of regular commuting hours, especially on weekends. Ten years later, the Seattle Electric Company, a predecessor company of Puget Sound Traction, Light & Power Company, consolidated under unified operation the properties of virtually all of the city’s private street railway businesses, including the Madison Park Cable Railway Company. Bisected by Madison Street, Madison Park featured a large pavilion, a boathouse, piers, a promenade, and two floating bandstands with shoreline seating. Nearby, a crude baseball diamond was built on the north side of Madison Street, which hosted the first professional baseball game in Seattle on May 24, 1890. With cable cars running from Pioneer Square as often as every two minutes on Sundays, the park soon became the most popular beach in the city. Steamships plied the lake from the park’s piers, carrying passengers for transportation as well as pleasure excursions and cruises. In 1908, ferry service to Kirkland was inaugurated from the dock at the foot of Madison Street, allowing automobiles to be transported across the lake for the first time. (Source: Seattle. Department of Neighborhoods)

• Subjects (LCTGM): Parks--Washington (State)--Seattle
• Subjects (LCSH): Madison Park (Seattle, Wash.)