page_title: Interbay, Seattle
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Interbay, Seattle / History
caption_attribution_description: Part of 1863 (United States) Government Land Office map showing what is now Interbay and most of Magnolia in Seattle Washington. Salmon Bay is to the north; Smith Cove juts in from the south. Note the claims by H. A. Smith and E. M. Smither. Smith eventually came to own Smither's claim. The map shows the natural shape of the land before the dredging of a canal to the northeast and the filling of much of the cove to the south.
context_page_description: Interbay is a neighborhood in Seattle, Washington consisting of the valley between Queen Anne Hill on the east and Magnolia on the west, plus filled-in areas of Smith Cove and Salmon Bay. The neighborhood is bounded on the north by Salmon Bay, part of the Lake Washington Ship Canal, across which is Ballard; on the south by what remains of Smith Cove, an inlet of Elliott Bay; on the east by 15th Avenue W. and Elliott Avenue W.; and on the west by the BNSF Railway. The Ballard Bridge crosses the ship canal from Interbay to Ballard.
  Much of Interbay is taken up by BNSF Railway's Balmer Yard. Interbay is also home to Fishermen's Terminal on Salmon Bay and the Port of Seattle's Piers 86, 90, and 91 on Smith Cove. Its main thoroughfares are Elliott Avenue W. and 15th Avenue W.
context_section_description: It appears that the valley between Magnolia and Queen Anne was carved out during the Vashon Stade of the Fraser glaciation (roughly 14,000–17,000 years ago), A thin layer of sand throughout the area may date from a tsunami following an earthquake along the Seattle Fault Zone about 1,000 years ago.
  Although Interbay fell within the traditional geographic range of the Duwamish, early ethnographers did not record contact-era or earlier Native American villages in the area. Nonetheless, University of Washington ethnologist T. T. Waterman lists several native place names at or near Smith Cove and Salmon Bay.
  The Denny Party saw Interbay's development potential when they explored the area in 1852, but chose to settle farther south. Their settlement became the core of Seattle. Meanwhile, most of Interbay came to be owned by Ohio-born physician and poet Henry A. Smith (1830–1915), after whom Smith's Cove is now named. Smith and his wife, mother, and sister began with a claim on Salmon Bay near the present-day Ballard, and steadily acquired more land, extending their holdings south through Interbay to Smith Cove. In particular, the Smiths bought when so many other were selling during the 1855–56 Indian War (see Battle of Seattle (1856)).
  Smith established a settlement known as Boulevard roughly halfway between Smith Cove and Salmon Bay, along a street he called Grand Boulevard (present-day West Dravus Street). He farmed, practiced medicine, and wrote. His most famous piece of writing, published in the 1880s, purported to be an English-language rendering of Chief Seattle's speech on the occasion of an 1854 treaty conference; there is question about the authenticity of the translation.
  In 1884 the Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railway (SLSER) purchased all but 50 acres (20 ha) of Smith's 9,600 acres (3,900 ha) in Interbay and built a north–south rail line through the area. The train stopped on Grand Boulevard near Gilman and Thorndyke Avenues, spurring further commercial development and the rise of a blue-collar village. In 1891, Seattle annexed Magnolia and Interbay, including Boulevard. By 1894, the post office name had been changed from "Boulevard" to "Interbay", the name that has continued to this day.
  The railway route through Interbay eventually came under the control of James J. Hill and the Great Northern Railway, as did much of at Smith Cove. Hill established a major depot and port at the cove, including Piers 38 and 39 (later renumbered 88 and 89)(now demolished), which were located east of present-day Piers 90 and 91. In 1896 Nippon Yusen Kaisha established the first regular steamship service between Asia and the Pacific Coast of North America, with Smith Cove as its American port. 
  During the 1911–1916 construction of the Lake Washington Ship Canal along Salmon Bay, about 150 acres (61 ha) of Smith Cove tidelands were filled with material from the dredging. The then (1911) new Port of Seattle built Fishermen's Terminal on Salmon Bay at the north end of Interbay and bought the Great Northern docks and approximately 20 acres (8.1 ha) at Smith's Cove, where they developed two new coal and lumber piers, today's Piers 90 and 91. These developments at either end of Interbay led to the increasing industrialization of the area.
  This maritime trade spurred the rise of companies in Interbay including rope factory Portland Cordage, Rudd Paint Manufacturing, Berquist's Vinegar Works, and the Chicago Junk Company (later Tsubota Steel and Pipe Company). Finns, Poles, Russians, Germans, Austrians, and Scots figured prominently among those who settled and worked in the neighborhood.
  The Asian trade out of Smith Cove continued until 1934, when the violence there accompanying the Maritime Strike of 1934 led to a diversion of this trade to the Port of Los Angeles.
  During the Great Depression, Interbay was the site of one of Seattle's Hoovervilles.
  From 1941 into the early 1970s, Smith Cove served as a depot for the United States Navy, before returning to use as a civilian port.
caption: This 1863 Government Land Office map of Interbay (and much of Magnolia) shows the claim by H. A. Smith extending south from Salmon Bay; immediately south of that, extending to Smith Cove, is a claim labeled "E. M. Smither". The map also shows the natural shape of the land before the dredging of a canal to the northeast and the filling of much of the cove to the south.
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