Alki Point

Alki Point (, Lushootseed: sbaqabqs, lit.'prairie point') is a neighborhood in western Seattle, Washington. It is a point jutting into Puget Sound, the westernmost landform in the city's West Seattle district. Alki is the peninsular neighborhood on Alki Point. Alki was the original settlement in what was to become the city of Seattle. It was part of the city of West Seattle from 1902 until that city's annexation by Seattle in 1907. The Alki neighborhood extends along the shore from the point, both southeast and northeast. To the northeast it continues past Alki Beach roughly to Duwamish Head, the northernmost point of West Seattle. Alki Point also marks the southern extent of Elliott Bay; a line drawn northwest to West Point marks the division between bay and sound.

The name "Alki" is a Chinook Jargon word meaning "by and by" or "eventually". It is a shortened version of the original name, "New York Alki." The name "New York" may have been chosen because it was the state of origin of several of the settlers. In the Lushootseed language, the name of the point is sbaqabqs, meaning "prairie point." Other names in English for the point include Battery Point, Me-Kwah-Mooks Point, and Roberts Point.

Prior to American settlement, the Duwamish people used the area for cultivating and gathering at nearby prairies. They were maintained through seasonal burning. The Denny Party landed at Alki Point November 13, 1851, and platted a settlement of six blocks of eight lots, calling the settlement "New York Alki". However, the next April, Arthur A. Denny abandoned the site at Alki for a better-situated site on the east shore of Elliott Bay, just north of the plat of David Swinson "Doc" Maynard. This site is now known as Pioneer Square. Charles C. Terry, who owned the land, and some others held on at Alki for a while, but most eventually joined the others in Pioneer Square. Terry gave his claim to Maynard in 1857 in exchange for his Pioneer Square holdings; Maynard farmed the land for 11 years and sold it to Hans Martin Hanson and Knud Olson in 1868, Hanson taking possession of the point itself.

The Stockade Hotel was photographed by early Seattle photographers Asahel Curtis and Theodore Peiser. The Alki Point Lighthouse dates from 1913, replacing the United States Lighthouse Service's post light from 1887 and Hanson's lantern-on-a-post from the mid-1870s.

From 1925 to 1936, a ferry route across Puget Sound connected Alki Point with Manchester, Washington on the Kitsap Peninsula. Well into the 20th century, Alki was reachable from most of Seattle only by boat. Alki today is reminiscent of a Pacific Northwest beach town, with a mix of mid-century bungalows, medium-rise waterfront apartment houses, waterfront businesses, a thin beach, and a road with a bike/foot trail running several miles along the water. This section of West Seattle is bounded on the northwest by Elliott Bay; on the southwest by Puget Sound; and on the east by the West Seattle hill. Its main thoroughfares are Alki Avenue S.W. (northeast- and southwest-bound); Beach Drive S.W. (northwest- and southeast-bound); and S.W. Admiral Way (east- and westbound). There have been summer concerts at Alki Beach since the early 1900s; the original streetcars to West Seattle were established in order to bring people to these events. Today, the beach plays host to the Seattle Music Fest every August, a three-day music festival that plays host to emerging Northwest artists and selected national and international headliners. The Birthplace of Seattle Monument is located at Alki Beach. It has the names of the first Seattle colony listed on it. The third side of the monument gives the names of the adult men composing the first Seattle Colony: "Arthur A. Denny and his Wife. John N. Low and Wife.

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