Cayton Corner Park
Updated: August 27, 2024
Summer 2024
Seattle Parks and Recreation hosted a Groundbreaking celebration on Monday, June 17. W.S. Contractors mobilized onsite on July 15 and are working to open the park by spring 2025. One of Seattle Parks and Recreation’s newest park construction projects, Cayton Corner Park will be a gathering space for the community; a place for neighbors to enjoy whether meeting up with friends, hanging out while kids stretch their legs and imaginations, passing through on the way to the bus, or soaking up some of our precious sunshine. The park will include a small lawn area, an accessible pathway, retaining walls to address grading challenges, a stairway, picnic tables and handrails. It is located next to the Hearing, Speech, and Deaf Center.
The space was named in 2014 after the Cayton family, who were early black settlers in the neighborhood in the late 19th and early 20th century. The Cayton’s newspaper, The Seattle Republican, was one of the most read in the city in the 1890s. Cayton also established the Seattle chapter of the NAACP.
Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) installed the new sidewalk in April 2018. The sidewalk curves around the tree into the park allowing the tree extra room to be healthy.
Location
Cayton Corner Park, 1831 E Madison St, 98122
Budget
- $15,300 Small and Simple Neighborhood Matching Fund (NMF) for schematic design
- $25,000 Small and Simple NMF for design development and construction drawings
- $51,436 Neighborhood Park and Street Fund
- $75,000 NMF for finishing design development and construction drawings
- $1,000,000 from Seattle Parks and Recreation, Park District Funding
- $40,000 in Community and Foundation funding, Seattle Parks Foundation
Schedule
Planning: 2012
Design: 2013 - Early 2023
Construction:
Phase I: UsetheNeighborhoodPark&StreetFund(NPSF)for19tth Avesidewalkimprovementsin early 2018
Phase II: Use Parks District Fund for construction in Summer 2024
Completion: Spring 2025
Project Description
The current development project will add much-needed public green space to the busy Madison corridor, link the Central District and Capitol Hill, represent the community through design and the namesake history and beautify what is currently an empty lot.
Acquisition
The initial Opportunity Fund project intended to acquire an open space for the neighborhood.
The acquisition was selected for the first round of Parks and Green Spaces Levy Opportunity Funding. The application received in this community-initiated process is a preliminary concept and the final design may be constrained by the project budget. All projects will go through Park’s public involvement procedure which includes public meetings and community input. They will also go through an internal Parks process to ensure the most effective implementation.
Past Work
The consultant and the community group worked with Seattle Parks and Recreation to complete the design development phase. This phase is based on the schematic design. Details such as path grades, dimensions and plant types will be refined. The site has some challenges for the designer. It is steep and is next to E. Madison Street, an arterial. A beautiful large tree erupts into the sidewalk; the tree will remain in the project as an anchor design element.
This builds upon the $25,000 Neighborhood Matching Fund award received in December 2013 to complete a schematic design for the park. The Friends of (what was then called) 19th and Madison Park used their NMF award to hire J.A. Brennan and Carolyn Law to complete a schematic design and a preliminary cost estimate for the park. This work was completed and the Design Report attached.
This Parks and Green Spaces Opportunity Fund acquisition is complete. Parks staff completed the acquisition of the 4,500 square foot, triangular-shaped lot. A consortium of neighborhood organizations will work with Seattle Parks on planning, design and construction of the new park.
Community Participation
Public Meeting 9/12/2017