Location: South Seattle/Beacon Hill
Address: 1144 Sturgus Ave. S.
Acreage: 2.0
When the city recently took down the sign that called this park Taejon and replaced it with one titled Daejeon, people thought Seattle had made a huge sister-city snafu. For 14 years people had enjoyed Taejon park on Beacon Hill named after its sister city in South Korea.
Luckily, we didn’t commit a major spell-check sin. It turns out the translations for many Asian cities evolve over the years to better represents the sounds of the native language. It did, however, take a member of the visiting Korean delegation to point out to us that we needed to update our sign. Oops!
I think we were forgiven when our Korean friends saw how peaceful this park can be. Appropriately, an elderly man was teaching a young guy Tai Chi on the quiet morning I visited.
In addition to walking along the nice path, take some time to enjoy the intricate paintings on the wooden pagoda near the center of the park.
#126 (Visited 2/23/10)
The Pavilion is worth a trip to the park! It is amazing! Check out the detailed painted, beautifully built pavilion and imagine yourself in Korea. Take your kids! And bring trikes or bikes for a short, safe, flat family ride. I wonder if there are special events held in that pavilion? It is truly a work of art!
Julia C.
West Seattle