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N Menford Place

This street was created in 1907 as part of Tronstad’s Addition to the City of Seattle, filed by Norwegian immigrants Nils and Bertha Tronstad and another couple. It appears to have been named after the Tronstads’ first child and only son, Menford Tronstad (1904–2001).

N Menford Place begins at Stone Way N between N 42nd and N 43rd Streets and goes around 200 feet east to a dead end.

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S Raymond Place

This cul-de-sac was created in 1984 as part of the plat of Valley Ridge, and was named after the nearby S Raymond Street. Raymond Street was itself named by and for Herbert R. Raymond (1862–1933), and his wife, Minnie M. Raymond (1874–1947), née Truax.

Herbert Raymond
Herbert Raymond in May 1922 ― see S Raymond Street for the Seattle Times article this photo was taken from
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S Raymond Street

This street was named in 1906 as Raymond Avenue, part of Replat Tracts 30 & 31 Sunnyside 5 Acre Tracts, by Herbert R. Raymond (1862–1933) of New Brunswick, Canada, and his wife, Minnie M. Raymond (1874–1947), née Truax, of Massachusetts. In 1907, it and Spencer Avenue became Raymond Street as part of the renaming of streets in Beacon Hill and Rainier Valley, and Grand Avenue, Grand View Avenue, and Sixteenth Street in West Seattle took the name as well. Three years later, when Georgetown was annexed, Raymond Street replaced James Street. (All this information from Rob Ketcherside’s extremely useful searchable table of street name changes.)

Herbert came to Washington as a child, along with his family; Minnie appears to have come later, and the two married in 1895. His eldest brother, George (Herbert was the youngest of eight children), sold shoes in Seattle and was also on the city council and in the territorial, as it then was, legislature. He later moved to Bellingham and was on the city council there in 1912 and 1913, and was mayor for less than two months, in December 1915 and January 1916, his term ending with his sudden death.

Herbert himself was also in the shoe business. As his Seattle Times obituary put it, he was:

Formerly one of the Pacific Northwest’s prominent shoe merchants and leading civic spirits… He had been retired for the past twelve years and had spent most of his time out of doors improving his two-acre residential property which overlooks Lake Washington. Mr. Raymond came to Seattle four years before the Seattle fire and helped fight it. His first shoe store was at First Avenue near Madison Street. He operated in other locations and under other firm names in subsequent years.

Article in the May 7, 1922, Seattle Times, about wildlife on Raymond's property
Article in the May 7, 1922, Seattle Times, about deer grazing on Herbert Raymond’s lawn and in his orchard. “I believe they came originally from Mercer Island, swimming across to Seward Park. There are no dogs about and the tempting green stuff in my garden coaxed them over the fence…. I don’t see a chance to grow a garden. But the deer are worth it. Their beauty more than repays for their feed.” Download the article as a PDF.

S Raymond Street begins at 51st Place S and goes just over ⅕ of a mile west to 48th Avenue S. It resumes at 44th Avenue S and goes a block west to 42nd Avenue S. There is another short segment that goes 1½ blocks west from Martin Luther King Jr. Way S, and then a longer segment begins at 33rd Avenue S and goes ½ a mile west to Beacon Avenue S, the portion crossing the Chief Sealth Trail being a pathway. A few more segments appear between 24th Avenue S and Swift Avenue S.

SW Raymond Street begins in West Seattle at High Point Drive SW and SW Graham Street and goes 1¼ miles west to 49th Avenue SW.

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E Olive Lane

This portion of E Olive Street was renamed E Olive Lane by Ordinance 100274 in 1971. It is unclear why. For some reason, as the quarter section map shows, the name change wasn’t extended into the shoreline street end.

Olive Street was named for Olive Julia Bell Stewart (1846–1921), who was five when the Denny Party arrived at Alki Point in 1851.

E Olive Lane begins at Lake Washington Boulevard at the bottom of the E Olive Street stairway and, passing Howell Place, goes around 380 feet east to Lake Washington.

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E Olive Place

E Olive Street between Melrose Avenue and Bellevue Avenue was renamed E Olive Place sometime between 1912, when it was recorded in the Baist Atlas as E Olive Street, and 1919, the first time it appeared as E Olive Place in The Seattle Times. I could not find any information on the name-change ordinance, and no information appears on King County’s quarter section map. The motivation appears to have been the fact that it meets Bellevue Avenue a half block north of its continuation and was very recently established (1910).

E Olive Street was named for Olive Julia Bell Stewart (1846–1921), who was five when the Denny Party arrived at Alki Point in 1851.

Portion of plate 7, Baist’s Real Estate Atlas of Seattle (1912), showing segment of E. Olive Street renamed E. Olive Place
Portion of plate 7, Baist’s Real Estate Atlas of Seattle (1912), showing segment of E. Olive Street renamed E. Olive Place
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E Olive Street

E Olive Street continues the original name of Olive Way east of Bellevue Avenue. As noted in that article, it was named for Olive Julia Bell Stewart (1846–1921), who was five when the Denny Party arrived at Alki Point in 1851.

E Olive Street begins at Bellevue Avenue and goes ⅕ of a mile east to Harvard Avenue. On the other side of Seattle Central College and Cal Anderson Park, it resumes at 11th Avenue and goes another ⅖ of a mile east to 18th Avenue, where it’s interrupted by E Madison Street. Picking up again at 20th Avenue, it goes ⅞ of a mile east to 39th Avenue, where it becomes a short stairway down to Lake Washington Boulevard.

E Olive Street stairway, April 2024
E Olive Street stairway looking uphill from Lake Washington Boulevard toward 39th Avenue, April 2024. Photograph by John Fell Ryan. Copyright © 2024 John Fell Ryan. All rights reserved.

Its initial segment, the block between Melrose Avenue and Bellevue Avenue, was renamed E Olive Place sometime between 1912 and 1919, and its final paved segment, the block between Lake Washington Boulevard and Lake Washington, was renamed E Olive Lane in 1971. As noted in that article, the shoreline street end, for some reason, retained the E Olive Street name.

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Loyal Way NW

Like Loyal Avenue NW, this street was named by Edward B. Cox, Harry Whitney Treat (1865–1922), and Treat’s wife, Olive Marion Graef Treat (1869–1945) in the 1907 plat of Loyal Heights. The streets and the subdivision were named after Loyal Graef Treat Nichols (1906–2004), the Treats’ newborn daughter.

Loyal Way NW begins at 28th Avenue NW and NW 80th Street and goes just over ⅓ of a mile northwest to 32nd Avenue Northwest and NW 85th Street, following the route of the Loyal Electric Street Railway that Treat built in 1907.

Loyal Graef Treat, Seattle, circa 1920
Loyal Graef Treat, circa 1920. Courtesy of MOHAI, McBride & Anderson Collection, 1974.5923.47.
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Dave Niehaus Way S

Note: This was originally published on Crosscut.com on April 4, 2011, as ‘Niehaus Way South: a nice tribute, or half of one anyway’ (reminder: stringers don’t write their own headlines). Recently, Cascade PBS took down what appears to be most of the stories from the Crosscut days, so I thought I’d repost some of my articles here. The original subhed was:

The new ‘designation’ for one stretch of First Avenue South will honor the late Mariner broadcaster without fully renaming the street. Here’s why that’s a good thing.

Later today (April 4), nearly 32 years to the day after S. Connecticut Street was renamed S. Royal Brougham Way for the late P-I sportswriter, the Seattle City Council is expected to honor another sports legend with a SoDo street. First Avenue South between Royal Brougham and Edgar Martinez Drive South will receive a “secondary designation” of Dave Niehaus Way South.

Though official, it is not a renaming in the same way Connecticut and Atlantic became Royal Brougham and Edgar Martinez, or Airport Way in front of the old INS building reverted to its historic name of Seattle Boulevard. As councilmember Sally Clark notes in the April edition of her email newsletter, “it will still be First Ave. S. on your street maps and GIS systems, but you’ll see a special brown sign with Dave’s name.”

Clark’s office says the Mariners are paying for the installation, and that there will be an unveiling on April 8, the day of the Mariners’ home opener. “The street naming is one tribute among many,” said Clark, when asked for comment. “I hope the signs remind people of Dave’s voice and of great plays seen from the stands or heard on the radio.”

”By renaming this street, we affirm that the legend of Dave Niehaus will never die,” said Glen Garnett, paraphrasing a line from “The Sandlot.” Garnett originally wanted to rename this stretch of First Avenue after Ken Griffey, Jr., but redirected his efforts after Niehaus’ death.

So what does this mean for proposals to name Seattle’s alleys and other unnamed spaces? A year ago, Crosscut’s Knute Berger wrote that “honorary names … won’t show up on maps or as addresses, and they can cause confusion… they can become controversial for being too outlandish, too commercial, or not politically correct.” But they could nevertheless be the best way forward. Budgets may never again allow for Great Renamings, but nothing should stand in the way of projects with smaller scope, catalogued online, funded by local property owners or heritage groups, and approved in, say, twice-yearly batches.

Pioneer Square’s Nord Alley, Downtown’s News Lane, and Denny-Blaine’s Swanson’s Alley are among the initial candidates I’d put forward. Yesler Terrace is another possibility. Regardless of one’s position on its redevelopment, a nod to Jesse Epstein and Nihonmachi (Japantown) seems in order. Considering the current and likely future funding environment, “secondary designations” deserve a serious look as a cost-effective way to bring a sense of place and history to the streets of Seattle.

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Balmer Yard

In June 2025, the BNSF Railway‘s Balmer Yard in Magnolia/Interbay closed. Nothing had appeared in the news as of the end of the month — just in Facebook groups and railroading bulletin boards — but it looks as if over a century of railroad operations in the neighborhood has come to an end (with the exception of the BNSF main line, known here as the Scenic Subdivision).

Boarded-up building at Balmer Yard
Boarded-up Seattle Terminal building at foot of 20th Avenue W. Photograph by Benjamin Lukoff. Copyright © 2025 Benjamin Lukoff. All rights reserved.
Boarded-up building at Balmer Yard
Boarded-up building among the tracks at the foot of 20th Avenue W., looking east. Photograph by Benjamin Lukoff. Copyright © 2025 Benjamin Lukoff. All rights reserved.
Boarded-up building at Balmer Yard
Another boarded-up building among the tracks at the foot of 20th Avenue W., looking southeast. Photograph by Benjamin Lukoff. Copyright © 2025 Benjamin Lukoff. All rights reserved.
Boarded-up building at Balmer Yard
Boarded-up Interbay Car Shop building along Gilman Avenue W. Photograph by Benjamin Lukoff. Copyright © 2025 Benjamin Lukoff. All rights reserved.

Update as of June 26, 2025: Feliks Banel has received this statement from BNSF:

“Driven by the success of efficiency initiatives across our network, rail cars are spending much less time dwelling in yards and more time moving the nation’s freight. This increase in productivity has allowed us to move more freight than this time last year with significantly fewer cars. Given the close proximity of our Seattle Stacy Yard and Balmer Yard, with fewer cars sitting in terminals, we were able to consolidate the two operations into one location.

“Although we are not actively switching or repairing cars at Balmer Yard, it is still critical to our overall capacity and operations. We are utilizing the facility to position cars for future customer shipments such as intermodal, lumber, and grain to be quickly injected into our network. All employees that previously went on duty at Balmer were shifted to nearby locations in Tacoma, Seattle and Everett.”

The yard, originally known as Interbay Yard and first mention in The Seattle Times in 1900, was renamed for Thomas Balmer (1888-1959) in 1968 upon its modernization into a hump yard, which took advantage of the 1% grade of the land that had formerly been part of the Smith Cove tideflats.

Balmer began working at the Great Northern Railway in 1907, seven years after he moved to Seattle from Illinois. He went to law school while working there, and by 1929 had become vice president and Western counsel. Balmer retired from the GN in 1958, a year before his death. (In 1970, the GN merged with the Northern Pacific Railway; the Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway; and the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad to form the Burlington Northern Railroad. BN itself merged with the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway in 1996 to form today’s BNSF.)

Balmer was also a real estate investor and a regent of the University of Washington. It is for this latter service, from 1934 until his death, that he was honored by the longtime home of the University of Washington School of Business, Balmer Hall. Completed in 1962, it was demolished in 2010.

Thomas Balmer
Thomas Balmer in photo accompanying his obituary in The Seattle Times, August 1, 1959
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Howell Place

This street was named in 1923 by Ordinance 45722, which provided that:

That certain alley in the City of Seattle, being the alley in Block one (1), Yesler & McGilvra Addition, running from East Howell Street to East Olive Street, and lying between Fortieth Avenue and Lake Washington, be and the same is hereby designated as, and named, EAST HOWELL PLACE.

It was named after E Howell Street, itself named for Jefferson Davis Howell (1846–1875).

Howell Place begins at E Howell Street just east of Lake Washington Boulevard and goes just under 400 feet south to E Olive Lane.

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Gatewood Road SW

This West Seattle street was created in 1909 as part of the Replat of Blocks 2, 5, and 6, Lincoln Beach Park. Based on its proximity to the Gatewood Acre Tracts and Gatewood Gardens subdivisions, it would appear to have been named for the developer Carlisle Gatewood (1860–1947), after whom Gatewood Elementary School and the Gatewood neighborhood itself are also named.

Gatewood Road SW begins at Glenridge Way SW south of SW Othello Street and goes around 850 feet southeast to 40th Avenue SW north of SW Webster Street.

Obituary of Carlisle Gatewood from May 30, 1947, issue of The Seattle Times
Obituary of Carlisle Gatewood, from the May 30, 1947, issue of The Seattle Times
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Ward Place

This block-long Queen Anne street is named for Ward Street, itself named after Dillis B. Ward (1838-1922). It was established in 1903 by Ordinance 9310 as East Queen Anne Drive. It may have been renamed later that year by Ordinance 10261, but as the latter ordinance has not yet been scanned by the city, we know it amends the section of the earlier ordinance dealing with the street — but not exactly how.

Ward Place begins at Taylor Avenue N just north of Aloha Street and goes 330 feet northeast to Ward Street just west of 6th Avenue N (intersection pictured below).

Street sign at corner of Ward Street and Ward Place
Photograph by Benjamin Lukoff, February 2024. Copyright © 2024 Benjamin Lukoff. All rights reserved.

Incidentally, Seattle City Councilman Hiram C. Gill (1866–1919), who would go on to become mayor from 1910–1911 and 1914–1918, was adamantly against its construction, and was no fan of the residents of East Queen Anne, either:

Just a few nights ago those yellers up there held a meeting and denounced this council as a lot of grafters that were into all kinds of corruption, and now they come right down here and demand that we give them something that nobody else would have the gall to ask for. It is time that bunch should be set back a little. There are only about two dozen people living up there anyway and there is no reason why a lot of money should be spent for improvements for a handful of people when no other part of the city can get anything in the way of special favors. That crowd up there has been getting one thing after another just because they holler for it. They are just a lot of cheeky grafters anyway. I wouldn’t care if there was any kind of decent people living up there but if those fellows had to walk up hill every day and then were put in jail and kept there until Hades froze over they would be getting just about what they want.

Article in the December 22, 1903, issue of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer regarding East Queen Anne Drive, now Ward Place
Article in the December 22, 1903, issue of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer

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Chris Curtis Way

In March 2019, the block of University Way NE between NE 50th Street and NE 52nd Street was given the honorary name of Chris Curtis Way. This block is home to the weekly, year-round University District Farmers Market. Founded in 1993 by Chris Curtis and others, it was the first of what are now seven farmers markets spread across the city. As the city council resolution states, Curtis received this honor for, among other things,

…Organiz[ing] the first neighborhood farmers markets in Seattle devoted exclusively to local, small-scale family farms, which focus on good land stewardship and biodiversity and are essential components of a healthy environment, thriving local economy, and safe food system; and… help[ing] to preserve farmers’ livelihoods, revitalize neighborhoods, and support and strengthen Washington’s small family farm industry.

Curtis retired as executive director of the Neighborhood Farmers Market Alliance in 2018.

Chris Curtis Way sign, University Way NE, Seattle
Chris Curtis Way sign, University Way NE at NE 50th Street, February 6, 2024. Photograph by Zev Handel, Copyright © 2024 Zev Handel. All rights reserved.
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Elliott Way

Seattle’s newest street opened to traffic May 1 — but it has a rather old name.

Elliott Way, which also carries the honorary name Dzidzilalich, is named for Elliott Avenue, which in turn was named in 1895 for Elliott Bay — itself named in 1841 after Midshipman Samuel Bonnyman Elliott (1822–1876), part of the Wilkes Expedition.

The new road begins at the intersection of Western Avenue and Bell Street and goes ⅓ of a mile southeast to Alaskan Way and Pine Street.

Elliott Way, spring 2023, looking north
Looking north on Elliott Way, shortly before opening, spring 2023. The Lenora Street pedestrian bridge can be seen crossing the railroad tracks at center; the Norwegian Bliss cruise ship is at upper left, docked at the Bell Street Cruise Terminal (Pier 66). Photograph courtesy of Ryan Packer. Copyright © 2023 Ryan Packer. All rights reserved.
Elliott Way, spring 2023, looking south
Looking south on Elliott Way, shortly before opening, Spring 2023. The Elliott Pointe building is at right and the “Blanchard Street Opportunity Site” at left. The intersection of Elliott Way and Elliott Avenue is at center. Photograph courtesy of Ryan Packer. Copyright © 2023 Ryan Packer. All rights reserved.
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Mount Adams Place S

Like Mount Rainier Drive S, Mount St. Helens Place S, and S Mount Baker Boulevard, this street was created in 1907 as part of the Mt. Baker Park addition, named for its view of Mount Baker in the North Cascades. Like the others, it was named after a prominent Cascade Range peak — in this case, Mount Adams.

At 12,281 feet, Adams is the second tallest mountain in Washington, behind Mount Rainier. Known by Native Americans as Pahto or Klickitat, it was named for President John Adams (1735–1826), in a rather roundabout way. Unlike Rainier or St. Helens, it was neither “discovered” by George Vancouver nor named by him; instead, the first non-Natives to spot it were Lewis and Clark, who at first thought they had spotted St. Helens. Then, as Wikipedia relates,

For several decades after Lewis and Clark sighted the mountain, people continued to get Adams confused with St. Helens, due in part to their somewhat similar appearance and similar latitude. In the 1830s, Hall J. Kelley led a campaign to rename the Cascade Range as the President’s Range and rename each major Cascade mountain after a former president of the United States. Mount Adams was not known to Kelley and was thus not in his plan. Mount Hood, in fact, was designated by Kelley to be renamed after President John Adams and St. Helens was to be renamed after George Washington. In a mistake or deliberate change by mapmaker and proponent of the Kelley plan Thomas J. Farnham, the names for Hood and St. Helens were interchanged. And, likely because of the confusion about which mountain was St. Helens, he placed the Mount Adams name north of Mount Hood and about 40 miles (64 km) east of Mount St. Helens. By what would seem sheer coincidence, there was in fact a large mountain there to receive the name. Since the mountain had no official name at the time, Kelley’s name stuck even though the rest of his plan failed. However, it was not official until 1853, when the Pacific Railroad Surveys, under the direction of Washington Territory governor Isaac I. Stevens, determined its location, described the surrounding countryside, and placed the name on the map.

Mount Adams Place S begins at Mount St. Helens Place S and goes ¼ mile southeast to S Ferris Place.

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Mount St. Helens Place S

Like Mount Rainier Drive S and S Mount Baker Boulevard, this street was created in 1907 as part of the Mt. Baker Park addition, named for its view of Mount Baker in the North Cascades. The neighborhood featured a number of other streets named for mountains in the Cascade Range, including this one, named after Mount St. Helens.

St. Helens, of course, is best known for its volcanic eruption on May 18, 1980, “the deadliest and most economically destructive volcanic event in U.S. history” according to Wikipedia. It was variously known by the Native Americans as Lawetlat’la (Cowlitz) and Loowit or Louwala-Clough (Klickitat), and, like Mount Rainier and Mount Baker, was given its official English-language name by George Vancouver on HMS Discovery in 1792. In this case, it honored his friend Alleyne FitzHerbert, 1st Baron St Helens (1753–1839), who at the time was British ambassador to Spain.

Mount St. Helens Place S begins at Cascadia Avenue S and goes just over ¼ mile south to Mount Rainier Drive S at 37th Avenue S.

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Mount Rainier Drive S

This street was created in 1907 as part of the Mt. Baker Park addition, named for its view of Mount Baker in the North Cascades. In addition to S Mount Baker Boulevard, the neighborhood featured a number of other streets named for mountains in the Cascade Range, including this one, named after Mount Rainier.

According to Wikipedia, at 14,411 feet, Mount Rainier is “the highest mountain in… Washington and the Cascade Range, the most topographically prominent mountain in the contiguous United States, and the tallest in the Cascade Volcanic Arc.” It has been known by a number of other names, including Tacoma (after which, incidentally, Takoma Park, Maryland, was named), which derived from its Lushootseed-language name, təqʷubəʔ (‘permanently snow-covered mountain’). It was given its official English-language name by George Vancouver on HMS Discovery in 1792:

The weather was serene and pleasant, and the country continued to exhibit between us and the eastern snowy range the same luxuriant appearance. At is northern extremity, Mount Baker bore by compass N. 22 E.; the round snowy mountain, now forming its southern extremity, and which, after my friend, Rear Admiral [Peter] Rainier [1741–1808], I distinguish by the name of Mount Rainier, bore N. 42 E.

Mount Rainier Drive S begins at the intersection of S McClellan Street, Lake Park Drive S, and Mount Baker Drive S, and goes ¼ mile southeast to S Hanford Street and Hunter Boulevard S.

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S Ferdinand Street

Like its neighbors S Hudson Street and S Americus Street, S Ferdinand Street was created in 1891 as part of the plat of Columbia. (The town incorporated in 1893 and was annexed to Seattle in 1907, becoming the neighborhood of Columbia City.) Along with Columbus Street, which no longer exists, they were part a of series of streets named after explorers — in this case, Ferdinand Magellan (born Fernão de Magalhães, also known as Fernando de Magallanes) (1480–1521), the first explorer to sail from Europe to Asia via the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

S Ferdinand Street begins at Lake Washington Boulevard S and goes a block west to just past 55th Avenue S. It is a stairway between 54th Avenue S and 53rd Avenue S, then begins again at 52nd Avenue S. After a half block as roadway and another half block as stairway, it begins in earnest at 51st Avenue S by Lakewood Park and goes just over a mile west to 31st Avenue S. It is another stairway for the next block, and then a stub off 30th Avenue S.

On Beacon Hill, S Ferdinand Street begins again at 28th Avenue S and goes ½ a mile west to 20th Avenue S, then resumes at 19th Avenue S and goes a further ⅖ to 13th Avenue S. It finishes up as a short connector from 12th Avenue S to Corson Avenue S by Maple Wood Playfield.

Panorama of the intersection of S Ferdinand Street and Rainier Avenue S in Columbia City, May 2012. Photograph by Todd McNaught, Wikimedia Commons, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported
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S Hudson Street

This street was created in 1891 as part of the plat of Columbia, which incorporated in 1893 and was annexed to Seattle in 1907, becoming the neighborhood of Columbia City. Part of a series of streets named after explorers — (Christopher) Columbus Street (subsequently changed to Edmunds Street), Ferdinand (Magellan) Street, and Americus (Vespucci) Street — it was named for English explorer Henry Hudson (c. 1565–disappeared 1611), namesake of Hudson Bay in Canada and the Hudson River in New York and New Jersey.

After a false start as a dead-end road west of 57th Avenue S, S Hudson Street begins at 53rd Avenue S and goes ⅓ of a mile west to 47th Avenue S, becoming a stairway between 50th Avenue S and 49th Avenue S. It resumes at 46th Avenue S and goes ¾ of a mile west to Martin Luther King Jr. Way S. After another couple of short segments, it begins again at 28th Avenue S and goes ¼ mile west to 24th Avenue S. There are two more short segments on Beacon Hill, and then Hudson Street resumes in Georgetown, going ⅖ of a mile from 4th Avenue S to E Marginal Way S.

In West Seattle, SW Hudson Street begins as a service road and footpath within Puget Park off 18th Avenue SW. Its first appearance as a residential street is at Puget Boulevard SW, where it goes ⅕ of a mile to the West Seattle Golf Course. It then picks up again at 35th Avenue SW, where it goes just over a mile to SW Jacobsen Road, becoming a stairway three separate times along the way.

Tuta Bella pizzeria at corner of S Hudson Street and Rainier Avenue S
Tutta Bella Pizzeria at the corner of S Hudson Street and Rainier Avenue S in Columbia City, March 2012. Photograph by Flickr user Adam Fagen, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic
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S Americus Street

This street was created in 1891 as part of the plat of Columbia, which incorporated in 1893 and was annexed to Seattle in 1907, becoming the neighborhood of Columbia City. It was part of a series of streets named after explorers. Columbus Street, named for Christopher Columbus, is no more, but Ferdinand Street (Ferdinand Magellan), Hudson Street (Henry Hudson), and Americus Street (named for Amerigo Vespucci [1451–1512]) still exist. (Vespucci, of course, is the namesake of the Americas).

S Americus Street exists in two short segments: the Columbia City one begins at 42nd Avenue S and goes a block west to 39th Avenue S, and the Beacon Hill one begins at 26th Avenue S and goes a block west to S Columbian Way.