About Longfellow Creek
Then and Now:
Development of the Longfellow Creek Watershed
It was late in the summer of 1851 when David Denny, John Low and Lee Terry drifted past the uncharted - and unspoiled mouth of Longfellow Creek. "The land above the creek was dark with seemingly impenetrable forest, damp with moisture draining from the steep hillsides into the creek, whose waters teemed with fish. The creek was called 'to-AH-wee', meaning 'trout'." When West Seattle was annexed to Seattle in 1902, Youngstown and Longfellow Creek were characterized as "heavily forested wilderness inhabited only by a few hardy pioneers".
Development began in 1905 with a steel mill opening on the natural tidelands around the mouth of the creek, and has continued at a steady pace. In 1939, the City of Seattle began using garbage to fill these tidelands. The original West Seattle Golf Course was completed on the west bank of the Longfellow Creek in 1940. Construction of houses and roads to accommodate Seattle's population increase in the 1960's caused storm water drainage to became an ever-increasing problem. Larger and more stormwater pipes were connected to Longfellow Creek. Peat bogs that formed the headwaters of Longfellow Creek were filled and paved to build the Westwood Village Shopping Center. Today, urban development continues as the greatest pressure on Longfellow Creek. Relatively low land prices and available vacant land makes Delridge one of the most attractive places for residential development in Seattle.