Broadway Hill Park is turning 10.
CHS introduced the new, just over a quarter acre public space in late June, 2016 as the last of its kind — a complete park with 12,000 square feet of grass, benches, community gardening space, and a BBQ grill in the middle of Capitol Hill.
We thought the BBQ would be more popular but like many features of Seattle’s parks as the city’s addiction and homelessness crises continue, the amenity also became another symbol of the challenges faced by the city’s public spaces.
2026, its decade anniversary, began with Broadway Hill Park part of a Seattle Parks and Recreation Department restart for the parks of “South Capitol Hill” over issues of public disorder and camping in the spaces. The fences finally came down after a long closure at Broadway Hill’s cousin Seven Hills Park this winter. The new plan includes efforts to do more to maintain and clean the parks while the city has also tried to connect neighbors and community groups to the parks for events and gatherings.
Broadway Hill Park also does mostly fine on its own with community garden spaces and regular visits on neighborhood dog walks. The city has doubled down on the natural canine connection to open, grassy spaces with a Capitol Hill Healthy Hike and “dog agility equipment” plan hoped to also keep the spaces busy.
Its anniversary arrives as Seattle is grappling with more than concerns about disorder and encampments in its public spaces. How its parks are managed and policed has also been, literally, on trial. One example is the fallout from the Seattle Police Department’s May 2025 crackdown on counter-protesters against an anti-trans rally in Cal Anderson Park. Another is the trial underway in the lawsuit brought by neighbors against the city over Denny Blaine Park’s place as a gathering space for nudity and alternative communities. Closing arguments in that case are expected to begin Thursday.
Broadway Hill’s origin story begins more than 10 years ago.
In 2010, Seattle Parks acquired the land at the corner for Federal and Republican in 2010 for $2 million after a townhome project slated for the property fell through. In the time since the project started.
Broadway Hill was the last in a small wave of small parks investments around Capitol Hill by the city. Parks and rec opened small greenspaces just off E Olive Way at the garden-filled, (and, for a time, skateboard-popular) Summit Slope Park and near 15th Ave at the then- sleepy Seven Hills Park. It opened 12th Ave Square Park across from Seattle U with woonerf-y paved square featuring sculptures and seating. CHS marked 12th Ave Square’s 10-year birthday here, by the way.
Broadway Hill Park was conceived as a grassy neighborhood “front porch” with a design by SiteWorkshop. The costs a decade later seem practically quaint. A $750,000 construction budget from the parks levy was augmented by $37,500 in grants matched in volunteer time and effort by neighbors dedicated to creating the new park.
The park’s name is a nod to early Capitol Hill. People really did call the Capitol Hill area Broadway Hill at one point. As the new park took shape, officials settled on Broadway Hill Park to acknowledge the history.
The neighborhood has slowly grown up around the park through its ten years with a few new apartment and townhome projects rising nearby. A 58-unit apartment building now rises to the north. A development of six townhomes overlooks the park on the east. The Sharyn Grayson House — A King County Health Through Housing Capitol Hill apartment building — opened nearby last year. Officials seemed to expect more growth in the area. The park was chosen as the site in 2017 for then-Mayor Tim Burgess to launch the rollout of City Hall’s Mandatory Housing Affordability proposal. Three years later, the pandemic’s economic impacts would fully reset Seattle’s development path.
As for our predictions that Broadway Hill Park might be the last of its kind, we’ll let you decide. Cayton Corner Park opened along E Madison in 2025 but is half Broadway Hill’s size. A park of another style is also in the works. There might not be funding to begin work on it until 2029, but plans are being shaped for the 1.6-acre Bullitt property in the Harvard-Belmont Landmark District.
Broadway Hill Park is located at 500 Federal AVE E.
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