Woodland Park & Woodland Park Zoo Tour

When the Olmsted’s arrived in 1903 to plan Seattle’s park and boulevard system, Woodland Park was the city’s largest public park. Purchased from the widow of Guy Phinney in 1899 for $100,000, it was six miles outside Seattle’s city limits.

The Phinney estate consisted of a large house where the Woodland Park Zoo’s south parking lot is now, a formal garden where the Rose Garden is, an impressive stone entrance at 50th and Fremont Avenues, a bandstand, hotel, and paths through the wooded hillside down to Green Lake, where he built a bathing beach, bathhouse, and ballfield.

The Olmsted Brothers firm were hired in 1908 to create a design for Woodland Park. Consistent with his 1903 recommendations and believing that native forests are vital to urban areas, J.C. Olmsted retained the natural woods on the eastern slopes of the Phinney estate leading down to Green Lake.

Thank you to Woodland Park Zoo management for allowing this free tour to enter the Zoo grounds.

Tour details:

• This loop tour is approximately 2 miles long.
• Meet just south of the Woodland Park Lawn Bowling Club, 6150 Whitman Ave N, Seattle 98103 promptly at 10 a.m.
• Ample free parking is located south of the Club.

Space is limited, please register via Eventbrite. Please email tours@seattleolmsted.org if you have any questions.