Creating Lawton Park: A History of Magnolia Community Action

Creating Lawton Park

By Barbara Downward

Lawton Park is hidden in its hilly neighborhood. Find it by going to Lawton Elementary School at 4000 27th Avenue West and looking south, up the hill. The paved path by the children’s play area climbs to the south end of the park at the West Emerson Street easement. Along that paved path, the broad lawn edged with trees feels spacious. And at the top of the hill, when you turn around, a panoramic view of Ballard to the north is your reward. Weeks of clearing, filling, and grading produced this rolling slope. Other areas of Lawton Park were left a little wild. Park trails lead through ravines where you can take a deep breath and relax in the forest before emerging back onto Magnolia’s streetscape. Lawton Playground and Park’s origin story is one of community action, and it all began with the Lawton School PTA spearheading the work.

Lawton School, in Magnolia’s northeast corner, was constructed in 1913. Over the following decades, the school gained importance, with Magnolia’s growing population and the closure of Interbay School in 1939. Lawton’s enrollment reached 500 in the 1940s, but many roads in its neighborhood were unpaved, and there were no sidewalks around the school. The topography of the area was steep and rough as described in a history of the Seattle Public Schools:

According to former Principal W. E. Neutzmann, when he started there in 1946, Lawton was somewhat isolated and hidden in the woods. “Substitute teachers frequently had difficulty finding the school. Many children walked to and from the school through

the woods.“ Children from the base (Fort Lawton) were brought to the school on a bus provided by the Army. (1)

Black-and-white aerial view of gridded streets and a natural-looking area with trees in the middle.

Fig. 1. Lawton Park’s wooded canopy on March 7, 1955, with West Manor Street seen at the right-middle side of the photo and the 27th Avenue West easement cutting through the park to Lawton School.

Image source: Photo is in the public domain and courtesy of Seattle Municipal Archives, Don Sherwood Parks History Collection, item no. 29611.

Lawton School’s resourceful and energetic PTA

In October of 1948, the Lawton School PTA “made a house-to-house survey, getting birthdates of pre-school children to predict the future enrollment“ (2). The PTA informed the Seattle School Board of the survey results and asked for school improvements. Lawton School expanded in 1950 with the addition of nine new classrooms, a kindergarten, a gym, an auditorium, and a lunchroom.

As developers like Modern Home Builders “covered the vacant land as fast as the carpenters could hammer“ (3), the focus of the Lawton School PTA turned to finding space for recreation. They organized committees that would support the creation of a playground and park around the school. From a Recreational Development Committee in 1949 to a Study Club then a Community Planning Committee in 1950, the PTA continued to pursue improvement of the neighborhood. In July of 1950, the City of Seattle Planning Commission published the Lawton Neighborhood Recreational Study following a Joint School-Parks Committee request. The study recommended obtaining land to “satisfy future needs now, while some land is still vacant,“ stating “the only vacant tract of sufficient size to meet the playground deficit is located immediately south and west of Lawton School“ (4).

Simple, grayscale map of an area that includes Lawton Playground, Park, School, and surrounding streets.

Fig. 2. Suggested Plan, Map 2, from the Lawton Neighborhood Recreational Study, City Planning Commission of the City of Seattle. July 20, 1950.

Image source: In the public domain and courtesy of Seattle Municipal Archives.

The resourceful and energetic Lawton PTA took the City of Seattle Planning Commission’s recommendation from concept to reality. In September of 1951, they spun off a “Property Owners’ Committee“ with thirty-one members, some from outside the PTA, and proposed a special assessment district (sometimes referred to as a Local Improvement District, or LID). The LID proposed that the community assess a property tax to finance the cost of the park. The Property Owners’ Committee prepared information and petitions for the campaign. Property owners within half a mile of the park would be assessed “about $16 for a 50-foot lot,“ or 5,000 square
feet (5).

Strong support from the community

The petitions, with more than 550 signatures, were presented to the Seattle City Council Parks and Public Grounds Committee. A public meeting on the proposed LID “for Lawton Playground-Park“ was held February 20, 1952. Many supporters spoke, including representatives from the Planning Commission, Park Board, Seattle School District, Lawton Park PTA, Boy Scouts, Camp Fire Girls, the co-chairs of the Property Owners Committee, Mrs. Margaret Coughlin (secretary of the Committee), the Interbay District, St Margaret Parochial School Mothers’ Club, and a Mr. Newsom. Supporting letters from three service clubs—the Magnolia Community Club, Kiwanis Club of Magnolia, and the Magnolia Commercial Club—were read. Two individuals protesting the project spoke (6).

Grayscale photo of four people standing in a wooded area: one man on the left and three women on the right. All are wearing long coats.

Fig. 3. Photo from “A Place for Kids To Play” with some members of the Playground Committee.

Image source: Seattle Municipal News, February 23, 1952. The Seattle Public Library, Seattle Room.

A speedy process

The City Council Committee approved the proposal, sending it to the whole council for consideration. Ordinance 80837, creating Lawton Park and authorizing the condemnation of property within park boundaries, was approved by the full City Council on March 17, 1952, and signed by Mayor William F. Devin on March 20, 1952 (7). The project went forward.

In April 1952, properties within the boundaries of Lawton Park were condemned (8). Final judgment in the condemnation cases occurred in October of 1952 (9). King County and Modern Home Builders, Inc. were paid for their interest in forty lots within the park, and two more lots were acquired from private owners. The total cost of these 42 lots of land, approximately 8 acres, was $23,900. The cost of administrative and engineering work brought the total assessment to $30,264, which was levied against properties in the neighborhood around the park through the LID (10). City Council accepted the awards as recommended and Lawton Park was established, though much work still lay ahead (11).

A light yellow, hand-drawn map with streets and properties marked in blue, park and public areas in green, and property condemned for Lawton Playground-Park in red.

Fig. 3. Map with the property to be condemned (for Lawton Playground-Park) outlined in red. Enclosed in a letter from the City of Seattle Planning Commission to the Parks and Public Grounds committee chair, March 5, 1952.

Image source: In the public domain and courtesy of Seattle Municipal Archives.

Property for a playground

Seattle Public Schools (SPS) then bought property west of Lawton School for playground space. In 1952, the SPS Board of Directors approved the purchase of eight lots for $15,000 (12). SPS was able to obtain four of the eight lots that same year (13). SPS and Seattle Parks split the cost of the last two lots at the north end of the planned school playground site (14). The City negotiated creation of an easement to build a street between 27th Avenue West and Williams Ave West near the north end of the new playground site, but that street was never built (15).

Joint use of the school playgrounds by Seattle Schools and Seattle Parks needed a framework, including the division of costs. SPS and Seattle Parks approved a legal agreement on August 19, 1955, to share Lawton Park facilities (16). The School Board’s January 6, 1956, “Building and Grounds Committee” report expanded that agreement, detailing work each partner would perform in the development and maintenance of the Lawton School site. At a total cost of $15,642, development included a ballfield, a play area for small children, and blacktop walks around play areas near the school (17). The project would not be completed, to the chagrin of the Lawton School community, until January of 1957 (18).

Developing the park

While SPS worked to secure and develop the property near the school, the community was eager to start the development of Lawton Park, especially the paths that would connect to the school. But funding was a problem. Two Parks levies, in 1952 and 1954, had failed (19). Lawton residents were told to appeal to City Council. In 1955, they asked Seattle Parks to develop a landscape plan they could help initiate to maintain momentum and enthusiasm for Lawton Park (20). Parks agreed and sent a request for $10,000 to the Council for the “first unit of work,“ (21) and “Operation do-it-yourself“ began.

Committee member Margaret Coughlin wrote bulletins for the Magnolia News to document the activities of the volunteers donating their time. Even the US Navy helped, for children from Naval housing south of the park at Magnolia Manor attended Lawton School. Paul V. Brown, superintendent of Parks, thanked the Navy for five weeks of clearing and grading in a letter to Commander J. P. Crogan, Public Works Officer of the US Naval Station. Brown stated, “We can now begin to see the recreational possibilities of this area which has so long remained in a state of No-Man’s-Land. The schoolchildren and the mothers of those who cross the park going to and from school have been especially enthusiastic about the improvements. Please extend our thanks to Jim Prime, the dozer operator, and Bill, his relief, for their co-operation in doing a fine job” (22).

A key addition

Lawton Park would wait forty years for the addition of more land to link the neighborhood together. In 1996, the third and final lot of the park’s southeast corner was secured, allowing for a new path from 25th Ave W to the park’s central area. That lot, at 3807 25th Ave W, was purchased with funds from the City of Seattle Open Space Program with the help of the Trust for Public Land (23). At $107,517, that single lot was over four times the cost of the original forty-two lots in 1953 (24).

You can still find remnants of the home, originally built in 1918, that once sat in place of this path. A beautiful camellia tree and an English hawthorn stand near pieces of the old foundation. Now, a boardwalk, built in 1999, circles a portion of the wetland and surface water that is culverted at the far southeast corner of the park (25).

Black-and-white photo of a house, garage on the left and trees and bushes on the right.

Fig. 4. The original house that stood at 3807 25th Avenue West, pictured here in King County Assessor Survey circa 1937, was once on the final lot added to Lawton Park in 1996.

Image source: In the public domain and courtesy of Puget Sound Regional Branch, Division of Archives and Records Management (26).

Testament to community organization

The creation of Lawton Playground and Park required decades of dedicated community organization and work. The volunteers and people involved remained committed to the improvement of their neighborhood through the formation of the Lawton Park Neighborhood Council, the offshoot of the Lawton School PTA and Property Owners Committee that created the Park. It was the first neighborhood council in Seattle, and it served as a model for other groups (27). They completed many successful projects. Mrs. Margaret Coughlin earned the moniker of a “one member chamber of commerce“ (28). She could be seen leading a group alongside Mayor Wes Uhlman up the trail from Lawton School during the dedication of Lawton Park (29).

The Lawton Park dedication ceremony took place on December 6, 1969. During the ceremony, US Army personnel stationed at Fort Lawton were cited for their help establishing trails in the 28th Place West easement:

On December 15, 1955, Col. Mayfield supervised a detail of volunteers from Fort Lawton which in two hours cleared all of the sawlogs out of the Valley, making it possible to complete the project (a switchback trail from Williams Ave W. to W. Thurman Street) just before snowfall. On April 26, 1956, Lt. Nobles brought another detail of volunteers from Fort Lawton to complete the trail southward to West Emerson Street. (30)

Today, we can still walk the trails created and maintained by so many dedicated Magnolians. Beyond the lovely views, towering trees, native plants, and wildlife, the spirit of community can be seen and experienced at this small neighborhood park.

Barbara Downward grew up in Seattle’s Crown Hill neighborhood and now lives in Magnolia. In 2025 she wrote “Lawton Park, a Volunteer’s Memoir and History“ for MHS Book IV, describing her experiences volunteering at Lawton Park starting in 1997. A history buff, she contacted the Puget Sound Regional Office of the Secretary of State for information about the house that once stood at 3807 25th Ave West in 2004. Research for this article looked further into the past. She is grateful to everyone who helped with the research and production of this article, especially Rick Hemmen, her husband.

Magnolia Historical Society