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The University District (commonly, the '''U District''') is a neighborhood in Seattle, Washington , so named because the main campus of the University Of Washington (UW) is located there. The UW moved in two years after the area was annexed to Seattle, while much of the area was still Clear Cut forest or stump farmland. The district of neighborhoods grew with the university to become a microcosm (for better and worse) of urban American cities.Dorpat HISTORICAL Like all Seattle districts, the boundaries of the University District are informal; by common usage, the University District is bounded on the west by Interstate 5 ; on the east by 25th Avenue NE; on the south by the Lake Washington Ship Canal ; and on the north by NE Ravenna Boulevard. It also includes, east of these boundaries, a small district on the north shore of Union Bay , bounded on the north by NE 45th Street and on the east by 35th Avenue NE. This extension consists mainly of the "east campus" and extensive parking lots of the University. What is now the University District has been inhabited since the end of the last Lushootseed Coast Salish They were connected by a well-travelled path along what is now the Lake Washington Ship Canal (1883, 1916). Surveyors noted several large Douglas-firs and Western Red Cedars (given that large trees were not unusual back then, these must have been especially large). The U. District was first surveyed in 1855, and its first white settlers arrived 12 years later. In 1890, that part of the neighborhood due west of the present UW campus was laid out as the Brooklyn Addition. One year later much of the land north of the Ship Canal, including Brooklyn, was annexed to Seattle. The UW moved from Downtown in 1893, and the first university building was built in 1895. An 1894 report describes a train wreck just west of the current University District. Latona has now been cut off from the University by Interstate 5. 1894.]] Aug. 20, 1894. Wreck on Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern just west of Latone [now Latona Avenue . Freight train from Gilman [now Snoqualmie The name "Brooklyn" began to fade soon thereafter. Electric Trolley tracks had been laid up Columbus Avenue (later 14th Avenue) in 1892, and the neighborhood soon began to be called "University Station" after the heated waiting house at the corner of what is now NE 42nd Street (1895). The name Brooklyn is not lost, however, for Brooklyn Avenue NE runs parallel to University Way, one block west. North and west of the campus, within the University District, the University Heights—a name now little used—was named for its elementary school (1903–c.1988; since 1990 the University Heights Center for the Community , host for numerous activities small and large.Long; Eskenazi. Neighborhoods within some districts in Seattle are more or less no longer in common usage. See also Seattle Neighborhoods#Public Library Branches, Public Schools, And Public Parks and Seattle Neighborhoods#Informal Districts . , a regular at the tavern when he was a professor at the University in the 1950s and early 1960s.Walt Crowley, Blue Moon Tavern, An Unofficial Cultural Landmark , HistoryLink.org Essay 1001, April 1 , 1999 .]] But for the trolley, in early decades of the U. District Downtown was a trek, a boat, and a horsecart ride away. Given these early transportation difficulties, the U. District was largely self-sufficient, with area businesses for people with ties to the University. Construction of family homes increased in the early 1900s, as did churches, theaters, stores, and a YMCA . The district's first bank and the first local public library opened in 1906, the modest library organized by local merchants.Burrows As a result of a contest held by the University Commercial Club in 1919, 14th Avenue (by then already known as "The Avenue" or " The Ave ") was renamed University Way, and the neighborhood was renamed the University District (1919). The neighborhood's north-south arterials are (from west to east) Roosevelt Way NE (southbound)), 11th Avenue NE (northbound), Brooklyn Avenue NE, University Way NE, and 15th Avenue NE. NE Pacific, 45th, and part of 50th streets are principal east-west arterials , NE Campus Parkway is a minor east-west arterial, running only west of the campus. REFERENCES
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