University District Land Ownership
Graham Mullen
5/22/2024
For centuries, the area the University of Washington occupies was used by various local Native groups as a canoe portage between Lake Washington and Lake Union. Evidence from court cases and news articles also suggests the existence of a Duwamish village with several longhouses in the area during this period. In 1855, the Treaty of Point Elliott was signed, allowing for White settlement to take over the region. By 1865 Native folks were expelled from the city of Seattle, unless employed and housed by a White settler, by Seattle Ordinance No. 5. However, what was the University District back then had not yet been incorporated into the City of Seattle, that would occur in 1891.
Native resilience is apparent through the lives of Cheshiahud/Chesheeahud and Tleebuleetsa, and the Zakuse/Dzakwoos/Jackuse family who both resided in the area around Portage Bay after Ordinance No. 5 was enacted. Cheshiahud’s homestead was not on land that became UW property, though it was on Shelby Street just across the bay from UW. The Zakuse homestead, however, was located on land that would eventually become UW property. Their home was right around where the Fisheries building is today on southwest campus. This was also the outlet for the old portage trail from Lake Washington to Lake Union used by Indigenous people who lived near the lake. Doctor Jim Zakuse was an Indigenous healer living in the area in the late 19th century but, in part due to loss of work from urbanization, moved with his family to Issaquah sometime between 1887 and 1900. Cheshiahud, on the other hand, moved to the Port Madison Reservation somewhat later in 1906 after his wife, Tleebuleetsa, died.
In the 1860s and 1870s there was a loss of Indigenous presence because of laws like Ordinance No. 5 and increasing White settlement. Much of the land in the University District was owned by individuals or family homesteaders during this period. In 1867, the first White settlers in the University District, Christian and Harriet Brownfield, filed a land claim where the bulk of the UDistrict is today. As more Seattlites set their eyes on the area, land was increasingly bought by real estate developers and transportation companies in the 1880s. By 1890, this area had changed hands several times and was no longer owned by the Brownfields. It was now known as ‘Brooklyn’, in the 1880s, it had been the ‘Lakeside Addition’ and the ‘Kensington Addition’. Even amidst this growing urbanization, the Zakuse family, and Cheshiahud and Tleebuleetsa stayed for quite some time in the area, though both families opted to leave eventually.
In 1885, Thomas Burke and Daniel H Gilman approached local investors to create the Seattle, Lake Shore, and Eastern Railroad to connect Lake Washington to the rest of Seattle. This would eventually become the Burke-Gilman Trail. Efforts to connect the University District to the rest of Seattle, particularly through the railroad, served as a major impetus for urbanization of the area in the 1880s. There is not much information about land ownership of section 16 township 25 N range 4 E, where the University of Washington campus is today, during this period. Perhaps this is due to the Organic Act passed in the 1840s, dedicating sections 16 and 36 of townships in the Oregon Territory (which included Washington at that time) for public schools. The area around the Montlake Cut was owned by the Lake Washington Improvement Company in the 1880s, who built a canal there that would later develop into the Cut we know today.
The University of Washington elected to move to its current campus in 1891, but construction did not begin until 1894. Once UW switched campuses in the 1890s, the trajectory of the land’s development became more obvious. More and more people, particularly young people, moved to the area. With time, the area developed into an integral part of Seattle. The campus continued expanding into the 1960s and 1970s, when the University petitioned the city to label what is currently southwest campus (around Mercer Court, Stevens Court, the Fisheries building, etc.) as ‘blighted’ so that the University could acquire it through the Urban Renewal program. Whether the area was actually ‘blighted’ is a matter of debate, even at the time, but as time would tell the University ended up acquiring the land. Today we can see the consequences of that in new apartment buildings, Greek Row, the Ave, University Village, and, of course, UW campus itself.
References
Bagley, C.B. (1916). “History of Seattle from the Earliest Settlement to the Present Time, by Clarence B. Bagley v.1.” HathiTrust. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/wu.89067417642?urlappend=%3Bseq=9.
Berger, M. and Hartmann, G.D. (2010). “ARCHAEOLOGICAL.ASSESSMENT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON WEST CAMPUS STUDENT HOUSING PROJECT, SEATTLE, KING COUNTY, WASHINGTON.” Cultural Resource Consultants, Inc. https://facilities.uw.edu/files/media/west-campus-student-housing-archaelogical-assessment.pdf
Bureau of Indian Affairs. (2001). “Summary Under the Criteria and Evidence for Final Detennination under 25 C.F .R. 83 for the Duwamish Tribal Organization.” United States Department of the Interior, Office of Federal Acknowledgement. https://www.bia.gov/sites/default/files/dup/assets/as-ia/ofa/petition/025_duwami_WA/025_fd.pdf
MacIntosh, H.M. (1999). "Lake Shore & Eastern Railroad Company." HistoryLink.org. https://www.historylink.org/file/1736.
Thrush, C. (2008). Native Seattle : Histories from the Crossing-Over Place. University of Washington Press.
Tobin, C. and Sodt, S. (2002). University District Historic Survey Report. https://www.seattle.gov/documents/departments/neighborhoods/historicpreservation/historicresourcessurvey/context-university-district.pdf
Genealogical records of the Zakuse Family in Ancestry.com:
https://www.ancestrylibrary.com/discoveryui-content/view/80003254:7602
Special Collections (University of Washington) box: Adm: University Lands & Properties: Property Below 40th Street;
Urban Renewal program (11/1957-5/1960)