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Longfellow Creek

King County, Washington geography stubsLandforms of SeattleRivers of King County, WashingtonRivers of Washington (state)Subterranean rivers of the United States
Washington (state) river stubsWest Seattle, Seattle

Longfellow Creek is a stream in the Delridge district of West Seattle, in Seattle, Washington. It runs about 3.38 miles (5.4 km) from Roxhill Park north to the Duwamish West Waterway at Elliott Bay. The Duwamish called the creek "Smelt" (Lushootseed: tuʔawi), denoting smelt fish (Hypomesus pretiosus). The creek was a traditional fishery dating back to the 14th century. Longfellow Creek's watershed is one of the four largest in urban Seattle, 2,685 acres (1,087 ha). It flows north from the Roxhill Park neighborhood for several miles along the valley of the Delridge neighborhoods of West Seattle, turning east to reach the Duwamish Waterway via a 3,300 ft (1006 m) pipe beneath the Nucor plant (formerly Bethlehem Steel). Salmon, absent for 60 years, began returning without intervention as soon as toxic input was ended and barriers were removed. Construction of a fish ladder at the north end of the West Seattle Golf Course will allow spawning salmon up along the fairways. Farther upstream the city has been enlarging and building more storm-detention ponds, recreation areas, and an outdoor-education center at Camp Long. The creek emerges at the 10,000-year-old Roxhill Bog, south of the Westwood Village shopping center. Three acres of open upland, wetland and wooded space just east of Chief Sealth High School in Westwood is the first daylight of Longfellow Creek. It has seen some plant and tree restoration since 1997. After more than a decade of preparation by hundreds of neighborhood volunteers, a restoration and 4.2-mile (6.7-km) trail was completed in 2004. Invasive vegetation is decreasing as native species retake hold. Blue herons and coyotes can be seen.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Longfellow Creek (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors).

Longfellow Creek
26th Avenue Southwest, Seattle Delridge

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Latitude Longitude
N 47.54805 ° E -122.36434166667 °
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26th Avenue Southwest 5970
98106 Seattle, Delridge
Washington, United States
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Delridge, Seattle
Delridge, Seattle

Delridge is a district in Seattle, Washington, United States that stretches along Delridge Way, an arterial that follows the eastern slope of the valley of Longfellow Creek, from near its source just within the southern city limits north to the West Seattle Bridge over the Duwamish River. It is generally associated with the neighborhing district of West Seattle, or even considered a sub-district of West Seattle. The Delridge district is a mostly residential and open space district that lies generally between the eastern ridge on which South Seattle College sits and the western ridge that peaks in the High Point district. The Delridge Neighborhood Plan Area includes most of the area within the valley itself. Some other nearby neighborhoods also have Neighborhood Plan Areas.The City of Seattle also uses the term Delridge more loosely to describe an informal collection of neighborhoods near the Delridge valley. This area is not precisely defined but often is considered to be bounded by the Duwamish River to the north and east, unincorporated White Center to the south, and West Seattle to the west along 35th Avenue SW. That area includes (north to south, east to west) the Pigeon Point, Youngstown, Puget Ridge, Riverview, High Point, Highland Park, Westwood, and Roxhill neighborhoods, and some industrial areas near the river.Pigeon Point is the northern end of the bluff above the Duwamish, east of the old Youngstown neighborhood that surrounds the steel mill, in what real estate listings often now call North Delridge. South Delridge has also replaced Westwood on some maps, but neither of the new half-Delridge terms have entered common speech among longtime area residents. Boeing Hill is the steep forested slope up which Highland Park Way courses. Like other nearby areas outside Delridge's own Longfellow Creek valley, this large greenbelt on the Duwamish's west bank is sometimes included in "Delridge Neighborhoods" in recent City maps and documents, as are the industrial area north of Spokane Street, Harbor Island, and the northern part of the heavy-industrial zone east of West Marginal Way along the lower Duwamish Waterway serving the Industrial District.

Frank B. Cooper School
Frank B. Cooper School

Frank B. Cooper Elementary School, usually called Cooper School, serves students from kindergarten through 5th grade. Located in the Pigeon Point neighborhood of Delridge, Seattle, Washington, it is part of the Seattle Public Schools district. The school's 14-acre (57,000 m2) site is immediately adjacent to the 182-acre (0.74 km2) West Duwamish Greenbelt, one of Seattle's largest wildlife habitat corridors. This rich natural environment enhances the school's environmental education program. While the current building, located at 1901 SW Genesee Street, was opened in 1999, Cooper School enjoys a long history in the community, dating back to 1906, when a group of 70 students, children of steel mill workers, attended classes at Youngstown School in a small building offered by the Seattle Steel Company. A year later, a wooden building—known as Riverside School—was built for the school at the base of Pigeon Hill. As the population of the community grew, the wooden structure was replaced by a brick building 1917, which was designed by Edgar Blair, with a 1929 expansion designed by Floyd Naramore. In 1939, the school was renamed to honor Frank B. Cooper, a former Seattle school superintendent. The historic Youngstown School building, located at 4408 Delridge Way SW, now houses the Cooper Artist Housing and Youngstown Cultural Arts Center. It is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.One of the school's assets is its diversity. Approximately 80 percent of Cooper students are racial or ethnic minorities and approximately one-quarter are bilingual. The first African American teacher hired to teach in Seattle Public Schools, Thelma Dewitty, worked at Cooper School from 1947 until 1953. The Thelma DeWitty Theater at the Youngstown Cultural Arts Center is named after her. On Thursday January 29, 2009 the Seattle School Board voted to close Cooper Elementary School and move the Pathfinder K-8 program to the Cooper campus.