What are five things you love about Beacon Hill?

I love that I can get a cappuccino like this only 5 minutes walk from home! Photo by Wendi.
I love that I can get a cappuccino like this only 5 minutes' walk from home! Photo by Wendi.
The Ms. Adventures in Italy blog had a post the other day, “Five Things I Love About San Francisco.” She invited readers to post their own “Five Things I Love About _______” lists on their own blogs. I started thinking about what I love about Seattle, and then thought “hey, why not Beacon Hill?”

So I ask you all, what are the five things you love about Beacon Hill? Please post in the comments. If you have photos, please email them to us or put them in the Beacon Hill Blog photo pool at Flickr.

I’ll get things started with my list. I live in North Beacon so this might be biased toward that area:

  • The light rail that will be serving us in less than a year!
  • The lovely old Craftsman bungalows that haven’t been “remuddled” beyond all recognition
  • The tasty food and drink available on Beacon Avenue these days (particularly El Quetzal and Victrola)
  • The new library: beautiful, and full of the best things in the world: books!
  • The sound of the gospel singing from the Baptist Church across from the Library, echoing through the evening air in summer when the windows are open

So what are your five?

Next week I may ask for the five things you’d like to improve about the Hill, but for now, we’ll stay on the positive side.

15 thoughts on “What are five things you love about Beacon Hill?”

  1. Since you’ve got the north covered, I’ll try the middle area:

    –The fall colors along Beacon Avenue south of Columbian Way.
    –The winter view of the Olympics from my living room.
    –Comet Lodge Cemetery.
    –All my friends on 20th and 21st — you’re not allowed to move away, ever.
    –Our proximity to Georgetown.

  2. All the neighborhood small grant improvements – the BRIC stairway on Hill between 16th and 17th for one example

    Convenient access to just about anywhere (except perhaps Ballard)

    El Delicicio inside the ABC supermarket/Culinary Communion

    El Centro

    1 light rail stop away from Sounders FC games next year

  3. Nick, your numbers #2 and #5 were also on my list before I edited it down to 5. (Well, in my case it was Mariners games as well.) We joke that Beacon Hill is 30 minutes from everywhere, because it often seems that no matter where you go in the area, if you allow 30 minutes you will be there in time. 30 minutes to Lynnwood or 30 minutes to Ballard. πŸ˜‰

    JvA, you can see the Olympics from your house? I’m jealous. We have a great view here… if we go stand in the middle of the street.

    One of these days I need to go see the Comet Lodge Cemetery. I love photographing old cemeteries.

  4. 1. Going to the bank and hearing Cantonese, Spanish, and a bit of English.

    2. Convenient transportation–whether I’m walking, driving or bus-ing it.

    3. Watching raptors over the greenbelt with my daughter from our front window.

    4. The neighbors don’t mind when my other daughter plays her fiddle in the front yard.

    5. The Red Apple–even if we didn’t win the bike in the sweepstakes.

  5. 1. the view of the Seattle skyline coming off of Beacon is simply the best in town – especially when bombing the hill on one’s bicycle in the morning

    2. cloud-watching from my back porch – I love watching the weather move across Rainier Valley & the Cascades from our perch above the I-90 tunnel

    3. Beacon Bluff p-patch

    4. being part of the Greater Duwamish Neighborhood – I love the still-gritty vitality of South Park, Georgetown & Beacon Hill, in all its diversity

    5. “Beacon Town”: the Red Apple, the library, Yoga on Beacon, Kusina Filipina, El Quetzal, (esp) Galaxie cafe

  6. Hmmmmm… just off the top of my head:

    1. McPherson’s produce stand.

    2. Begin halfway between Columbia City and Georgetown.

    3. Plane-spotting from my back yard.

    4. Our neighbors, and all their Obama/Biden signs.

    5. Driving around on top of hill on my scooter, enjoying the fall colors.

  7. 1) My neighborhood, Lockmore! A killer mix of mid-century ramblers and brick tudors wrapped on two sides by beautiful greenbelts.

    2) A quick walk, ride or drive down to Columbia City for movies, dinner or shopping (Andaluz!).

    3) A quick walk (BUT gnarly return), ride (ibid) or drive to Georgetown to see bands I love, awesome pizza, art/books (Hi, Lar!) and friends.

    4) Everything I plant in my yard grows and it has nothing to do with me or my efforts, that’s for sure.

    5) Metro route #32 to work is fast and friendly. Metro, don’t change a thing or I’ll start driving.

  8. Perhaps my North Beacon-ness is showing here, but where exactly is Lockmore? I’m guessing somewhere mid or south Beacon?

  9. The southeast corner of Beacon and Columbian – exactly where we DO NOT want a condo development to go in and replace our good neighbors at Grown Folks. πŸ™‚

  10. I posted a couple things in the “things I don’t like” thread, so I figured I should add something to this. Here are a few things I like about the neighborhood:

    1. Being able to see the tip of Rainier to Mt. Baker from the front porch of a house bought for less than $200k less than 10 years ago.

    2. Being able to walk to Jeff. golf course. Whether it is hitting half-price balls after 8pm, $13 winter afternoon fees on the big course, or a quick round through the short-nine, cheap golf is easy to find at Jefferson.

    3. LIGHT RAIL STATION! I’m biased here since I live not 3 blocks from the station and work the same distance from the Westlake station.

    4. Culinary Communion. I’ve only taken one class there, but this place is a great addition to the neighborhood. I just hope this is a sign of things to come as far as interesting businesses setting foot in the neighborhood.

    5. Proximity to other places. I have to add this, even though it is pretty sad that a good thing about the neighborhood is that it isn’t too far from several other neighborhoods that actually have businesses and services that I need. Whether it is Home Depot in SODO and Stewart lumber on Rainier (or Lowes if I am desperate), or the various ID, SODO, West Seattle, Georgetown, Columbia CIty, etc. restaurants, I’m never more than a short drive from whatever I need if I can’t get there by bus or walking. Hell, I can even get sporting goods at Outdoor Emporium on 4th ave.

  11. Thank you for posting this! I’ve been a resident of B-Hill for 3.5 years now and loving every minute of it! πŸ™‚ Two top reasons why I love the B-Hill: 1) Promixity of everything else 2) Ò€œgoing to the bank and hearing Cantonese, Spanish, and a bit of English.Ò€ 3) I really feel like home here.

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