Interbay Athletic Field is located between the Magnolia and Queen Anne neighborhoods at 3027 17th Ave W, 98104.
In 1910, the board of parks commissioners requested that John Charles Olmsted produce a report addressing the need for additional playgrounds and playfields throughout the city, as his 1908 report addressed that topic only in the recently annexed sections of town.
In assessing possible locations for organized play, Olmsted wrote that one of “the difficulties in perfecting the park system has been to provide large enough areas for the big boys and young men to play baseball in considerable numbers at any one place.” He continued, noting that “where there is a limited area for baseball, the big boys and young men should not be allowed to play to the exclusion of the smaller boys. The big boys are usually better able to afford car fare to outlying parts of the city where larger ballfields can be afforded and where there are relatively fewer small boys.” To Olmsted, the area of Interbay seemed a promising location to answer this and related needs: “This playground is needed for a large section of the city which has at present a thinly scattered population but seems likely to become densely populated when factories and warehouses increase as they are bound to do. . . . It is important in view of future requirements that the playground should be a large one, that it should be on flat ground and that it should be next to one of the bridges so as to be convenient to the population on both sides of the railroads and proposed waterway.” The area he prescribed, “between l6th and 18th Avenues, West, and from W. Wheeler Street north to W. Barrett Street,” closely outlines the area occupied by these playfields today.
Today Interbay is home to a golf driving range and nine-hole course, soccer stadium and playfields for football and soccer, and a community P-patch.