Pritchard Island (Seattle, Washington)

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When Euro Americans arrived in the Puget Sound country, Native Americans made their homes along the salt water, along the rivers, and on the edges of lakes. On Lake Washington, several groups of the Duwamish tribe had established permanent winter camps consisting of large cedar longhouses. Each structure could accommodate 20 to 30 members of extended families. The people who gathered their food in and around Lake Washington called themselves hah-chu-ahbsh or lake people. On the southwest shore of the lake was an island with a settlement called tleelh-chus or little island. The island sat at the beginning of a trail through a valley that led to the salt water at Elliott Bay. The land was covered with tall stands of fir, hemlock, and cedar. The valley became Rainier Valley and the trail became a railroad, then Rainier Avenue S. The island became Pritchard Island. The lake people were removed from their homes to reservations after the Treaty of Point Elliot in 1855.

In 1883, Andrew B. Young bought the island where the lake people had lived. It was called Young's island until Alfred James Pritchard acquired it about 1900 and renamed it after himself.

In 1917, the level of the lake dropped nine feet when the Lake Washington Ship Canal was cut through to Puget Sound. The Black River disappeared and Pritchard Island became a peninsula. Dunlap Sough went dry. Clay tennis courts came in that year, but the beach was not used because of the proximity of a sewer outfall. Pritchard Island to the north and Atlantic City to the south were developed as bathing beaches in 1934, with the help of the Works Progress Administration (WPA).
Pritchard Island, on the southwest shore of Lake Washington, was originally the site of a permanent settlement of the Duwamish Tribe, then became an English-style estate, then a housing development. In 1917 it ceased to be an island. The slough that separated it from the mainland became a park.

First People

Prior to the arrival of settlers from the United States, Native Americans who called themselves hah-chu-absch, or lake people, made their livings pulling fish from the lake, hunting game and digging vegetables. They built a collection of cedar longhouses at what they called tleelh-chus or little island. After the Treaty of Point Elliot in 1855, these people were removed to reservations.

The first settler in the area was Joseph Dunlap who filed a claim in 1869. The water between the island and the mainland was called Dunlap Slough. The island was owned by A.B. Young and it was called Young's Island. In 1900, Young sold the island to Alfred J. Pritchard. By this time, the construction of the Seattle and Rainier Beach Electric Railway drew developers and home builders to the once remote area. Pritchard platted a loop shaped street on the island and lots into the slough. Access to the island was by means of a footbridge.

A Most Important Landscape Feature

The area was annexed to Seattle in 1907. The following year, the city retained the landscape architecture firm of Olmsted Brothers to include the newly annexed areas into their 1903 plan for parks and boulevards. The designers spotted Pritchard Island and recommended that "This most important landscape feature (Pritchard Island, the marsh and some of the main shore) should be secured ... as an objective point for the Lake Washington shore drive ... eventually connected with Atlantic City Park" (Sherwood). The neighbors also recognized the island for its recreation potential and petitioned the city for a bathing beach.

Pritchard Island joined the rest of Seattle, geographically, in 1917 when the Lake Washington Ship Canal dropped Lake Washington nine feet. Dunlap Slough was drained and in 1927, Pritchard renewed efforts to sell the property as a park, but the city was reluctant to buy the slough area. Already the north end of Island Drive was being used as a public beach, but opinions differed and no decision was made.

In 1932, The Great Depression precluded much in the way of municipal expenditures on parks, but the city council approved a bond issue to improve the park over the protests of the park board. Voters passed the issue and Pritchard Beach was acquired by the city by condemnation in 1934. With the assistance of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), the land was cleared of homes and the area was graded. The slough area to the south was acquired by the city in 1935 and included in Atlantic City Park to the south.

The present day (2001) Pritchard Island Beach bath house sits on the site of the home of flamboyant Seattle band leader Vic Meyers (1898-1991). Meyers served as Washington's Lieutenant Governor and Secretary of State.