Bradner Gardens Park

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HOURS

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

ABOUT THE PARK

Bradner Gardens Park is a new 1.6-acre park in the Mt. Baker neighborhood of southeast Seattle at 29th Avenue South and South Grand Street.

Enter the park throughone of three arbors that were designed, fabricated and installed by University of Washington architecture students in the Howard S. Wright Design / Build Studio under the tutelage of instructor Steve Badanes.

Winding paths connect the many features of Bradner Gardens Park. Stroll past seven ornamental theme gardens of the Master Gardener border: butterfly & hummingbird, fragrance, sensory, shade, xeriscape, winter interest and northwest native. Watch the bees buzz the 61 p-patch plots. Learn the alphabet under the watchful eye of the baby scarecrow in the children’s A to Z garden. Learn how to grow food crops in the Seattle Tilth and Urban Food demonstration gardens. Watch birds take shelter in the native plant habitat. See more than 50 varieties of ornamental street trees recommended for small spaces and under utility lines.

Play basketball on the renovated court that has one regulation hoop and one adjustable hoop. See the 33-foot-tall vintage (1916 to 1933) Aermotor windmill that circulates water from the seasonal pond to the dry streambed next to the children’s play area. Discover art throughout the garden: scarecrows, decorated hose bibs and pillars, a Buster Simpson wind vane, and fish signs. Sit on the salmon bench carved from a maple log by Chris Vondrasek. Watch a basketball game from the mosaic bench decorated by Coyote Junior High students. Let your eyes wander from the garden weasel wind chime by Clair Colquitt to the trellis made from garden tools. Stroll across the foot bridge to sit in the shelter of the leaf-shaped pavilion built by the architecture students.

Community volunteers worked with Barker Landscape Architects to design Bradner Gardens Park in cooperation with the Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation. Friends of Bradner Gardens Park is a special collaboration of residents of the Mt. Baker Community and the following horticultural organizations:

• King County Master Gardeners
• Seattle P-Patch Program
• Seattle Tilth Association
• WSU Cooperative Extension Master Urban Gardeners

HISTORY

Bradner Street was named for an area realtor in the 1890’s. The plot of land that Bradner Gardens Park now sits upon was originally dedicated as the site for a new school. It was the site of 1942 Quinsite-Bradner Housing Project, which became abandoned by 1953. It became the site of a ballfield at the request of Councilman Chas. Carroll in 1955. It was then eventually purchased from the school district in 1971 for $51,200.

(Edited from the files of Don Sherwood, 1916-1981, Park Historian.)