Seattle’s First Great Street: How Denny Hill Became Front Street

The Front Street improvements are going ahead finely; with the present delightful weather, and if this continues, they will soon be completed. In three weeks' time, at least, it is supposed that the street will be opened for travel.

The bridge at the foot of Seneca Street has been finished, and the cribbing on either side is being filled in quite fast. Street Commissioner Blackman is engaged in constructing the much-needed new crossing at the intersection of Seneca and Front streets, along the bridge. It will be twenty feet wide, and constructed in a strong, thorough manner.

The improvements along the fronts of several of the lots above are progressing finely. The wall along the front of Mr. Denny's block is all completed with the exception of putting on the coping, which will be done as soon as the terrace bank above is completed. The wall is constructed of boulder granite laid in Portland cement, while the coping which is on the ground is elegantly chiseled out from Bellingham Bay Sandstone. The work was done by Keenan, and the job is a most creditable one.

The bank will have a beautiful terrace, this being rendered necessary on account of the residence lying too near the street. It will be loaded over, and a hedge will finally be planted along the foot at the edge of the wall. The steps leading up to the house from the street are of Bellingham Bay sandstone and look neat and pretty enough.

The bank, wall, and steps in front of Mr. Brown's property were completed some time ago, and the terraced bank is now as green as a leek, and covered with innumerable spring flowers which give it an air of peculiar beauty. Mr. Jackson's residence further down will soon be completed, and this, when finished, will also add to the attractions of the street.

After the proposed work is completed, all that will remain to be done is a little in the way of 'finishing touches,' to render Front Street one of the most pleasant and excellent thoroughfares to be found in any city on this part of the coast. In the first place, the street should be covered with a generous coating of beach gravel, of which we have an abundant supply. The grade will have a great many little sags, and places where, after a rain, the water will stand in little pools. These should all be filled up and leveled off, and the surface of the streets made not to turn water readily.

It would be a pity to have it in any other condition after so much money in its improvement. In the second place, there must be no exception to the rule of a 12-foot sidewalk the whole length of the street. Every citizen ought certainly to conform to the rule in this matter. Then little individual pride on the part of the citizens residing along the street in the matter of garden fences and embankments would improve the appearance of things much.