How do you move a garden? Part two: The Eastlake P-Patch

 

The Eastlake neighborhood of Seattle boasts a lovely community garden nearly hidden from view down a steep embankment. In the 1990s, gardeners pulled together to fight threats to their patch. In contrast to the Sand Point P-Patch, the Eastlake garden was located on public land controlled by the city. Unfortunately, this did not guarantee protection when developers came calling. Eastlake had no park such as Magnuson Park at Sand Point to which they could move the garden. In fact, the neighborhood with breathtaking views of Lake Union and the Olympic Mountains had very little green space at all. Faced with this situation, the community decided to combine their efforts and fight for both the garden and a new park.

The Shelby Street right-of-way in 1941. Eastlake Avenue is at top; Fairview Avenue at bottom. The lower portion of the hill is the site of the original p-patch. Courtesy Seattle Municipal Archives, Image #39970.

The top of the incline was used as a makeshift parking lot for businesses on Eastlake Avenue, including Covey Laundry. Courtesy Seattle Municipal Archives, Image #39961, 1941.

Rough Start

The story of Eastlake P-Patch dates to 1981 when a small group of neighbors, about 10 families, banded together to carve out a garden where the Shelby Street right-of-way met Fairview Avenue on the shore of Lake Union. Barbara Donnette remembers the ordeal of hacking out blackberry vines and weeds only to find piles of garbage underneath it all:

"We ultimately cleared the land, hauled away all of the debris that had collected there -- there were old car parts, old appliances deteriorating, carpeting -- you name it! And I spent quite a lot of time. We had a Volkswagen bus and at the time you could dump at the transfer station. I remember being really stuffed up in my nose after the trips with the carpeting and the mold. It was pretty awful. Anyway, we carved out 18 200-square foot plots."

The neighborhood now had a P-patch. Unfortunately, it was only a few years before real estate development put the squeeze on the garden. The demolition of a building on Eastlake Avenue was the first challenge when the city gave the owners permission to funnel trucks and dumpsters down through the right-of-way, directly through the patch. For a brief space of time gardeners coped with a reduced footprint. 

Then, early in the 1990s, construction of a new building on Eastlake Avenue threatened to take over the garden completely. The P-patch had run afoul of "interim use." However, this time the community revolted, organized, and demanded not only that the garden be preserved, but that the undeveloped green space directly north of the construction site be purchased by the city and made into a park. 

The Eastlake P-Patch in 2004 before the build-out of the upper portion. Courtesy Seattle Municipal Archives.

Moving things around

Thanks to the efforts of the Eastlake Community Council, the P-patchers, and a variety of other advocates, the dream of a combined park and p-patch became a reality in 1998. The group formed to honcho the effort, the Olmsted-Fairview Park Commission, honored the vision of the Olmsted Brothers landscape company which a century earlier had recommended small parks along Seattle's waterways, including Lake Union. City, county, and state funding was mobilized to allow the city to purchase land on both sides of the Shelby Street right-of-way from private owners. In 1995 the community celebrated the successful land acquisition with a blackberry festival.

The P-Patch was relocated to accommodate the design of the park. However, the move was not far -- a few feet to the south. As at Sand Point, the gardeners hoped to take their plants and the soil they had worked on to the new site. However, under cramped conditions and with heavy equipment in the way, it was difficult. The soil that was moved had to be augmented to become fertile again. Little was left of the old garden.

The Kroll map published in 2000 shows the Shelby Street right-of-way labeled "Not Open" and plats below it already named "Fairview Olmstead [sic]," the park to come. 

The Patch Rises

The Fairview Olmsted Park (now generally referred to as Fairview Park) was laid out during the winter of 1998-99. The design was created by Nakano/Dennis landscape architects (now Nakano Associates).

Since that time three fundraising efforts, each anchored by a Department of Neighborhoods Matching Fund grant, led to infrastructure improvements. Most significantly, grants obtained in 2009 allowed the garden to expand uphill. Today the garden holds 47 plots.

The garden shed was constructed with funds raised in 2000.

The Eastlake P-Patch in 2022 showing the lower and upper gardens.

Stairsteps connect Eastlake Avenue at the top of the incline down to Fairview Park (at right) and the Eastlake P-Patch (at left), 2022.

Whimsical art can be found throughout the garden.

In the (Cheshiahud) Loop

Today the Eastlake P-patch and Fairview Park are stops along the Cheshiahud Loop, a series of interconnected paths, alleys, and streets that encircle Lake Union. Small pocket parks can be found at several street ends along Fairview. The loop is named in honor of a Duwamish elder who lived in the area with his wife for many years.

The view from the Eastlake P-Patch and Fairview Park, 2022.

Thanks to Barbara Donnette for her oral history interview.

This post is a part of the Seattle Community Gardening History Project. 

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