Cowen Park

Did Charles Cowen foresee frisbees soaring over his park? Here at Cowen Park, a tranquil space nestled in Seattle, that very question hangs in the air. Cowen Park’s history begins in 1903, when the land was part of the “University Park” subdivision owned by Charles Cowen. John Charles Olmsted, of the famed Olmsted Brothers landscape architecture firm, recognized the area’s potential. He recommended the city acquire it for a park. In 1907, with the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition buzzing nearby, Cowen donated the land. Olmsted designed a charming park with a “Little Children’s Lawn,” a covered shelter, a plaza, and footbridges crossing a winding stream. He even designed the park’s entrance gate. The park changed dramatically in the 1960s. One hundred thousand yards of fill from the construction of Interstate 5 were dumped here, burying the stream and creating a level ballfield. While some lamented this change, the new flat expanse hosted Seattle’s first Human Be-in in 1967 and the Second Annual Frisbee for Peace Intergalactic Memorial Thermogleep U.F.O. Frisbee Festival in 1971. While the festival didn’t become an official Seafair event, it cemented Cowen Park’s place in Seattle’s counter-culture history. Today, Cowen Park retains echoes of Olmsted’s vision. The play area and the building overlooking the former stream channel still reflect his original design. Cowen Park’s journey from “streetcar destination” to counter-cultural hub, from babbling brook to frisbee field, reminds us that even the most carefully planned landscapes are shaped by the unpredictable currents of history.