Paisley Drive NE

Like Inverness Drive NE, this street was created in 1954 as part of the plat of Jay Roberts Country Club Estates. Again according to Wedgwood in Seattle History,

Roberts gave the names Inverness Drive and Paisley Drive to the development’s two major connecting roadways. These two names referred to places near Glasgow, Scotland, and were meant to convey the idea of castle-like estate properties on a high vantage point.

Street sign, NE 85th Street at Paisley Drive NE in Inverness
Street sign, NE 85th Street at Paisley Drive NE. Photograph courtesy of Wedgwood in Seattle History. Copyright © 2013 Wedgwood in Seattle History. All rights reserved.

Paisley Drive NE begins at NE 85th Street and goes ⅖ of a mile northwest to 45th Avenue NE.

Inverness Drive NE

This street was created in 1954 as part of the plat of Jay Roberts Country Club Estates. According to Wedgwood in Seattle History,

Roberts gave the names Inverness Drive and Paisley Drive to the development’s two major connecting roadways. These two names referred to places near Glasgow, Scotland, and were meant to convey the idea of castle-like estate properties on a high vantage point.

Inverness entrance marker
Inverness entrance marker. Photograph courtesy of Wedgwood in Seattle History. Copyright © 2013 Wedgwood in Seattle History. All rights reserved.

Inverness Drive NE begins at Sand Point Way NE and goes ⅖ of a mile southwest to just south of NE 85th Street, at the north end of the Sand Point Country Club.

Sign at corner of Inverness Drive NE and the Burke-Gilman Trail
Sign at corner of Inverness Drive NE and the Burke-Gilman Trail. Photograph by Wedgwood in Seattle History. Copyright © 2013 Wedgwood in Seattle History. All rights reserved.

Ridge Drive NE

This private road, which lies entirely within the Sand Point Country Club, runs ⅖ of a mile from the main gate at NE 75th Street in the south to the intersection of Fairway Drive NE and Lakemont Drive NE in the north. It is so named for its central location atop the hill that gives the adjacent neighborhood, View Ridge, its name.

As local historian Valarie Bunn explains on her blog, the Sand Point Country Club, founded by Samuel E. Hayes, opened in 1927. As with two contemporaneous developments, Broadmoor and Windermere, its exclusivity was a selling point. An advertisement in the May 5, 1929, issue of The Seattle Times spelled this out more explicitly than usual: “Sand Point Country Club homesites are selling fast… because every homesite owner enjoys forever a close-in retreat from Seattle’s mobs of tomorrow… because every homesite owner is protected in his investment by carefully drawn restrictions against the admixture of objectionable buildings or races.” The racial restrictive covenant covering the neighborhood reads:

No tract shall be sold, conveyed, rented or leased in whole or in part to any Hebrew or to any person of the Malay, Ethiopian or any other Negro or any Asiatic race, or any descendant of any thereof. No tract shall be used or occupied in whole or in part by any Hebrew or by any person of the Malay, Ethiopian or any other Negro or any Asiatic race, or any descendant of any thereof, except only employees in the domestic service on the premises of persons qualified as herein provided as occupants.

Sign at corner of NE 75th Street and Ridge Drive NE, August 25, 2009
Signs at corner of NE 75th Street and Ridge Drive NE, August 25, 2009. Photograph by Benjamin Lukoff. Copyright © 2009 Benjamin Lukoff. All rights reserved.