Site Report 2
I found a topology map prior to 1900 and the area of my block shown is clear cut forest area or stump farmland that is clearly getting ready for buildings to be built on top of it. I further investigated this by looking up maps of later years and found by 1911 my block and the blocks around it were starting to fill in with buildings. After checking even further I found a map that shows Hotel Decca sanding tall within my block by the year 1950. This makes me believe that Hotel Decca was built between 1911-1950 making it a pretty old hotel. I believe that the building of the University of Washington had a lot of influence in most of these constructions. Since moving to the area 1893, the topography maps suggest that the urbanization of the area naturally followed. My block is very different from the blocks east of 15th Avenue, which are residential blocks and were built for homes. To check if my inference was accurate I checked the history of the area and found out that it used to be unleveled farmland without much change until the arrival of University of Washington from downtown in 1893. After the first campus building was finished being built in 1895, homes were starting to be build around the area in the early turn of 1900. This clearly led to the decline of nature in the U District area. A couple of signs of nature remain on the block from years prior but most of it is found as weeds in the spurting out of the ground in the parking lots. Unfortunately, most of the block is covered with parking lots so there isn’t much area left for nature to survive through. Other signs of nature are the trees surrounding the block that were planted long ago. I also found out through my research that Hotel Deca’s original name when it was first built was Hotel Meany. By 1906 the university district had its first bank and public library. So University of Washington seems to be the main catalyst to why this specific urbanization happened. My research also suggests that prior to the urbanization of this area, it used to be a prominent home for the proud Native American Duwamish tribe. Brooklyn Avenue was located in the then called University Heights. Another important aspect is that since during that time of early 1900s or late 1890s transportation was most difficult and took a very long time. So in response to this, the University of Washington was very self-sufficient. Through the urbanization of the area when building on the block, the area lost a lot of nature but through green street programs, Seattle area is trying to put the nature back into the U District blocks.