Marvin's Garden

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HOURS

4 a.m. - 11:30 p.m.

ABOUT THE PARK

Marvin's Garden is a quiet oasis across the street from Bergen Place Park in Ballard. Its five benches on a stone-embedded concrete patio are surrounded by cedar trees, shrubbery, and flowers in planters. It is also the site of the red brick Ballard Centennial Bell Tower, created to hold the old Ballard City Hall bell at the site where the City Hall stood, and to mark the Ballard Avenue Historic District. Note the inlaid compass in the floor of the bell tower.

HISTORY

No real relation to Monopoly's Marvin Gardens, Marvin's Garden was named for the late town character Marvin Sjoberg.

The Ballard Centennial Bell Tower-dedicated April 22, 1989-holds the bell that was part of Ballard's City Hall, which stood at this site from the time when Ballard was a city (1890-1907) separate from Seattle. The Ballard City Hall was destabilized by the 1965 earthquake and demolished two years later. The refurbished 1,000-lb. brass bell was restored at a ceremony held April 11, 1976, as part of a U.S. Bicentennial Project, with Seattle Mayor Wes Uhlman and Sweden's King Carl Gustaf XVI. Also at that ceremony, the Ballard Avenue Historic District, one of Seattle's landmark districts designated by Seattle City Council, was officially dedicated, as noted by a plaque affixed to the bell tower.