Cal Anderson Park

Another excursion for me yesterday, as I went down to Capitol Hill to explore the newly re-opened Cal Anderson Park.

The park has been closed for renovation, improvements, and expansion for the past two years. The Lincoln Reservoir, initially constructed after the Great Seattle Fire of 1899, has gained a lid, allowing for four more acres of parkland to be added to the park. In addition, the Bobby Morris Playfield has been renovated, replacing the natural grass with synthetic turf, and a new shelterhouse has been constructed between the ballfield and the main parkspace.

The centerpiece of the newly added park space is an acre-sized, four-part fountain and pool system. Beginning with a large conical fountain, water cascades out the top of the cobbled cone, down along a troughway into a large pool broken up with cobblestones, and finally into a large reflecting pool situated at the base of the original reservoir’s gatehouse.

Bits and pieces about the park and its renovations:

From HistoryLink:

Cal Anderson Park, located on Capitol Hill, includes Lincoln Reservoir and Bobby Morris Playfield. […] The reservoir was constructed following the Great Seattle Fire of 1889. It was put in use to store water from the Cedar River in 1901. The playfield was one of the first playgrounds to be developed in Seattle (1908). In 1922, the Park Board renamed it “Broadway Playfield” after the main street and neighborhood school to avoid confusion with a new major park acquired in West Seattle which was to be named Lincoln.

In 1980, the playfield was renamed Bobby Morris, after a beloved Capitol Hill coach who also served as King County Auditor for many years. In 2003, the entire site was named Cal Anderson Park in honor of Washington state’s first gay legislator. The Bobby Morris Playfield kept its name….

From Pacific Northwest Magazine:

Built partly on a lid over the old Lincoln Reservoir on Capitol Hill, the park has four acres devoted to ballfields, passive green space and a building for the community. Most spectacular is an acre-sized four-part water feature with a huge volume of water spilling from a cobbled cone into a channel, across a textured surface and into a larger reflecting pool.

While some might be a tad skeptical about just what uses the park will be put to, I was quite impressed with it during my walkthrough. The park is gorgeous, far nicer than the old fenced-off reservoir was, and seemed to be quite appreciated, with lots of people stretched out on the grass reading enjoying a sunny fall day. Two men were lawn bowling across the field, and one little boy and his mother had brought along a little remote control speedboat that they were sending zooming across the reflecting pool.

As always, I have a Flickr photoset with more pictures of the park, and I’ve also uploaded a 5Mb QTVR movie taken from midway along the trough leading from the fountain to the first pool.

“Release the Pressure” by Leftfield from the album Leftism (1995, 7:39).