Magnolia, Seattle

Magnolia
Seattle Neighborhood
Smith Cove and Magnolia seen from Columbia Center
Map of Magnolia's location in Seattle

Magnolia is the second largest neighborhood of Seattle, Washington by area. It occupies a hilly peninsula northwest of downtown. Magnolia has been a part of the city since 1891. A good portion of the peninsula is taken up by Discovery Park, formerly the U.S. Army's Fort Lawton.

Magnolia is isolated from the rest of Seattle, connected by road to the rest of the city by only three bridges over the tracks of the BNSF Railway: W. Emerson Place in the north, W. Dravus Street in the center, and W. Garfield Street (the Magnolia Bridge) in the south — the Salmon Bay Bridge to Ballard is rail-only, no motorized traffic is permitted to cross the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks, and the W. Fort Street bridge over the railroad tracks only affords access to the W. Commodore Way industrial area (traffic to the rest of the city from that area still needs to take the W. Emerson Place bridge.)

Magnolia is bounded on the north by Salmon Bay and Shilshole Bay of the Lake Washington Ship Canal, across which is Ballard; on the west by Puget Sound and Elliott Bay; on the south by Elliott Bay and Smith Cove; and on the east by Thorndyke, 20th, and Gilman Avenues W., beyond which is Interbay.

Although magnolia trees do line W. McGraw Street in the neighborhood's commercial district, Magnolia's naming was actually a misnomer. It was named by Captain George Davidson of the U.S. Coast Survey in 1856, who reportedly mistook the plentiful madrona trees for magnolias. Groups are actively working to save the remaining madronas on the bluff.