Highline SeaTac Botanical Garden

History: Highline Area

Paradise Garden | Elda Behm | Highline Area

"The Highline"

The Highline area is named after the Highland Park and Lake Burien Railway. The HP&LB was conceived as part of a real estate venture aimed at developing what was then the sparsely populated hinterlands North of Lake Burien. The line was started in 1911 by combining two previous franchises and completed and opened by mid-1912. Lake Burien property owners pooled their money to purchase a streetcar from Seattle, and the track was laid following the path of least resistance.

The track started at W. Marginal Way (then called Riverside Ave.) and Spokane Street, where it connected with the Seattle Electric Company's track for the trip downtown. "The Highline" ran south on W. Marginal for about a mile before turning southwest and climbing the steep grade (hence the name) to 9th Ave S.W. and W. Holden Street. At 9th & Holden the track again turned south running along 9th to W. Henderson Street , where it turned west to 16th S.W.

At 16th S.W. the streetcar again turned south, rolling to Roxbury in White Center. It was at the White Center station that an exercise in class distinction took place, the separation of "Five-centers" and 'Ten-centers". The well-heeled, able to afford the full dime fare to the end of the line, became known as "ten-centers". "Five-centers" disembarked at Roxbury for the long stroll home.

From the Roxbury station the track ran south, then east on SW 107th St. to 12th Ave SW. Heading south again at 118th, the track detoured around Salmon Creek and followed 12th to 128th SW, where it continued along Ambaum. In the early twentieth century this part of King County had yet to be logged, and the track and paralleling road were the only signs of civilization in the dense, primeval forest. The track rose and fell with the contour of the land, eventually emerging in Burien. Halfway between 151st and 152nd the line headed west to it's terminus at 22nd SW in Seahurst, right in front of the Seahurst Land Company's real estate offices, one of five real estate companies operating in Seahurst.

The original owners built the line on a wing and a prayer, and when a Nov. 18, 1912 slide wiped out the track they donated the line to the City of Seattle, with the proviso that the line be repaired immediately. Seattle accepted the offer after the owners paid off the LB&HP's operating debt and returned the streetcar to Seattle ownership. Using several steam shovels and a borrowed Climax logging locomotive, the Seattle Municipal Railway restored service to the line by mid-May of 1914.

The line provoked a real estate boom in the area west of 9th Avenue SW and north of Roxbury. The new homes produced passengers, and those passengers had needs, so the track also did a brisk business in freight. Occasional slides still plagued the slope between West Marginal and 9th Avenue SW, and the track was frequently closed for hours while debris was removed. Another hazard on this same stretch came in the form of caterpillars, which thrived on the dense stands of native maples that blanket the eastern slopes of West Seattle uplands. The entire slope was frequently turned into a wriggling caterpillar carpet and even copious amounts of sand could not prevent the cars from occasionally skidding back down the hill on the slippery track.

Cars ran every sixteen minutes, and the entire 14.14 mile route from Seahurst to downtown Seattle took 2 hours and 45 minutes. The HP&LB changed the character of the towns in southwest King County from rural farm and timber lands to commuting bedroom communities for Seattle. Eventually the rise of the automobile made the trolley obsolete, and the line fell into disrepair before being closed in 1929.

Sources:
"Our Burien" by Esther Balzarini
"The Street Railway Era in Seattle" by Leslie Blanchard