Location: West Seattle
Address: 4035 Beach Drive S.W.
Acreage: approx. 0.06
West Seattle has a huge amount of waterfront that is accessible to the public. Between Alki Beach Park and Lincoln Park alone, there are literally miles of public shoreline.
But, some of my favorite places to access the Puget Sound in this neighborhood are at the tiny waterfront parks that line Beach Drive SW. Today I visited three of these cute little parks, which are all within walking distance of each other.
From the south, start at Weather Watch Park. If you’ve eaten at La Rustica, you’ve probably seen this park since it sits right across the street providing the restaurant with an unobstructed view.
This park marks an important site in West Seattle’s history. This spot used to have a pier, where until 1920 the Eagle steamboat docked taking passengers to downtown Seattle. The entire neighborhood used to come out to greet people getting off the boat, creating a town square of sorts. In fact, La Rustica used to be a neighborhood store.
After the pier was taken down, this spot sat empty for 70 years before it was turned into a park. Besides the view, take in the fun artwork and information on weather watching this park has to offer. There’s even a weather vane and sundial.
#128 (Visited 3/9/10)
I live on the beach just south of weather watch park a few hundred feet. There are hundreds of old red brick blocks tumbled and worn about on the stone beach. I’m trying to see if they were from any significant building or historical significance. I find it interesting and am curious of their origin.
[…] La Rustica, open since 1996, is the only restaurant on Beach Drive and is across the street from Weather Watch Park. […]
[…] house, 4022 Beach Drive SW [map], a particularly visible spot because of its proximity to Weather Watch Park and La Rustica. Online records say the 107-year-old house, sold late last year for $925,000, will […]