Seattle Parks beautify the city and provide open areas for recreation and exercise. There are more than 400 parks and open areas, sprawling over 6200 acres of land. Denny Park is the first public park in Seattle that was gifted to the city by David T. Denny in 1884. The Board of Park Commissioners was founded in 1887 to look after the maintenance and development of the Seattle park system.
The famous architecture firm, Olmsted Brothers was hired by the Seattle Parks Commissioners in 1903 to plan numerous parks and boulevards for Seattle. The initial development of the Seattle park system was based on the Olmsted Plan taking into consideration modern day park system.
A substantial part of Seattle Park history was framed by Donald N. Sherwood (1916-1981), who was employed as an engineer for Parks. He worked for the development of the parks
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in Seattle for 22 years from 1955 to 1977.
Some of the boulevards in Seattle designed, inspired or recommended by Olmsted are Cheasty Boulevard, Puget Boulevard, Interlaken Boulevard, Mt. Baker Boulevard, Queen Anne Parkway- Gilman Avenue, Lake Washington Boulevard, Montlake Boulevard, Magnolia Boulevard, Schmitz Boulevard, Green Lake Boulevard, Hunter Boulevard, Ravenna Boulevard and Washington Some of the parks designed by Olmstead Brothers are Madison Park, Ravenna Park, Mt. Baker Park, Licton Springs Park, Schmitz Park, Sunset Hill Park, Viretta Park, Salmon Bay Park, Rogers Park, Marshall Park, Atlantic City Park and many more.
The most visited parks in Seattle are Green Lake Park, Discovery Park, Golden Gardens Park, Gas Works Park and Green Lake Park. They are among the most popular places to go for swimming, windsurfing, and other outdoor pastime activities such as Frisbee, jogging, playing football and more.
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