Lake Park Drive is located in the Mt. Baker neighborhood and runs along the eastern boundary of Mt. Baker Park. It connects Mt. Baker Boulevard to Lake Washington Boulevard and, as such, is an essential component in the boulevard system proposed by the Olmsted Brothers firm.
Lake Park Drive and Mount Baker Park occupy the “saddle” in the shoreline ridge that Olmsted refers to in his 1903 report. John Charles recommended a boulevard route taking advantage of this more gently sloping terrain to provide connections from Lake Washington Boulevard to inland areas, both across Rainier Avenue to Beacon Hill and to a ridgetop parkway, never realized, that Olmsted called the “crestline parkway.”
Today the Drive provides a highly scenic route, with views into Mt. Baker Park through an allee of trees and skirted by a vegetated slope immediately east of the drive.