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Madison Park Seattle Washington
With mansions to the south and the
gated golf course community of
Broadmoor to the north, Madison Park
could appear a bit…intimidating.
Grand homes and humble houses are
mixed together in the Madison Park
Seattle real estate market.
Ask locals what they like about
their Madison Park neighborhood and here's what
they'll say: the amenities.
Madison Park Seattle proper - with its
public swimming area, floating dock,
tennis courts and playground - lies
at the foot of East Madison Street.
In Madison Park Seattle Washington
is a quaint and thriving shopping
district, with sidewalk cafes,
salons, boutiques, travel agencies,
realtors, a grocery and a hardware
store, surrounds the park. Just up
the street, new shops at Lake
Washington Boulevard offer more
services.
The Washington Park Arboretum is
at the Madison Park Seattle back yard and the
woodsy Lake Washington Boulevard
lures bicyclists from all over the
city. Downtown, The U-District,
Interstate 5 and the 520 bridge are
minutes away.
Pray spent her teen years here and
loves it. Her parents still live
blocks from the shop. On slow days,
she and her mom sit outside and just
chat, she says. "If I sit out in my
chair, I know one of three people."
Madison Park real estate is definitely a
neighborhood renovating, upgrading,
keeping up. Tour its meticulously
landscaped residential streets on a
weekday and witness armies of
landscapers, builders, and
craftspeople hard at work on
everything from turreted estates to
beach cottages, Spanish stuccos to
Craftsman bungalows.
Pick-ups full of brush rub shoulders
with Mercedes. Stacks of lumber pile
up in yards, while some houses wait,
mid-facelift, showing only tar paper
and naked frames to the world.
How will you know who these
enterprising, elite home and garden
designers are? They'll post a big
sign in the front yard. Right next
to the port-a-potty, if the job's
big enough.
For all its grandeur, Madison Park
real estate is a real mix. The south end - near
the exclusive Seattle Tennis Club -
has plenty of gated, waterfront
estates with private docks. Mythical
brick Tudors and columned-Colonial
palaces sit just off Madison. Leafy
green trees canopy wide boulevards.
Stone lions guard porches and
cobblestone walks.
To the north, more modest Madison
Park homes
prevail; here you'll find brightly
painted Victorians, smaller wood and
brick homes, boxy moderns and
Mission-style stuccos. A surprising
number of condo and apartment
buildings ring the shopping area and
northern lakefront.
The only thing this enclave of good
taste and pricey houses lacks -
besides sufficient waterfront
parking - is diversity. Despite its
proximity to multi-ethnic,
economically diverse Central
District and Capitol Hill, the
Madison Park Seattle neighborhood remains largely white
and very upper class.
Only the beach - which draws
swimmers and sunbathers from
neighboring communities - is
diverse. There, kids of all hues
frolic in the water. Folks from
nearby Madison Park retirement homes watch from
benches. Young moms wade in with
babies. Even the tattooed tan here. |
A Fixer-Upper
needing various repairs.
