Site Report 1

Photo of Clifton Apartments (left), Cedar Apartments (right), and Identity Apartments (back).  Photo by Sean Mahoney, 2017.

Cedar Apartments.  Notice the cars lining the street.  Photo by Sean Mahoney, 2017.

Identity Apartments (left) and Locke Apartments (right).  Photo by Sean Mahoney, 2017.

Rough hand drawn map of the block

My block is between NE 41st and 42nd Street and 11th and 12th Ave NE.  This block is completely residential.  There are seven apartment complexes on this block, along with one private property house. One of the apartments is owned by UW, Cedar Apartments.  In the several times that I have taken a walk around the block, there have always been students walking in and out of the apartments, which makes sense.  Given how close the block is to campus, it would make sense that the majority of people living there are college age.  One thing that I found interesting that I didn’t notice the first time is that there is an alley between 41st and 42st Street.  I only ended up noticing this when I looked up my block on Google Maps.  I figure that I didn’t notice it because all of the entrances to the apartments are on the outside of the rectangular block, so I didn’t think that there would be any need for anything on the inside.  

Immediately upon visiting this place, I had several questions which I hope to answer through historical research.  First, is it just Cedar Apartments that is owned by the University, or do they have a stake in the other apartment buildings there?  Also, regarding the one private property house, why is it still there?  I would expect that land so close to the University would be used for apartment housing specifically geared towards students, so why is that private property still there?  Is it an older couple who refuses to give up their land?  It is entirely possible I won’t be able to answer that question, but it’s still interesting to think about.  I’d also like to know what this land was used for before the University was founded in 1861.  Was it still a residential area, or, because of its close proximity to the Ave, were there businesses there previously?

In the multiple times I visited the area, I noted that there was a surprising lack of available parking, shown by the cars lined up and down the streets, where parking was available.  I happen to know that Cedar has an underground parking lot, and one of the other apartment complexes had a parking lot visible from the street.  But the other complexes didn’t have anything at all.  While the stereotype is that college kids are broke and can’t afford cars, one would expect that there are students who can afford cars, so it doesn't make sense that there wouldn’t be consideration for that kind of thing.  The easiest way to find out more about this is to visit the places, and see if they have an underground parking lot, like Cedar Apartments does.