Lakeview Park
S.W. 160th Street & 6th Avenue S.W.
2.8 Acres
The northwest section of Five Corners was homesteaded by Mr. James Carter, who maintained a peach orchard on the side hill, raised sheep and had sheep sheds near the site of Lakeview Elementary School, S.W. 158th and 6th SW. Many fruit trees remained on the property for decades. Carter sold his land to Don McGuire, who in turn sold to Charles Schoening--for $100 an acre for the 160 acres. Nearby 10th Ave. S.W. was first known as Schoening Avenue, before the county replatted the streets
Fred and Bill Dashley and Charles Schoening struck it rich together mining for gold in Alaska. When they returned to Seattle, they wanted to invest their good fortune. One day while hunting, Shoening found a beautiful lake. He and the Dashley brothers soon returned and bought up the land around the lake from the Von Boorian family. At this time it was called Lake Burien after the Von Burians.
Bill, Fred and Charles each sub-divided and developed their portion. Fred owned most of "Old Burien" and part of the northeast portion of the lake and land extending north and east from the lake. In 1912 he built one of the first houses on the lake at 1235 S.W. 152nd, where it still stood in 1994. Schoening owned east and some south portions of the lake. He built a hunting lodge and raised sheep, cows and pigs, which he sold wholesale at his meat market at Second Avenue and James Street, the present site of the Smith Tower. The well preserved hunting lodge--to which Schoening allegedly kept a brown bear chained--was at 11th S.W. and S.W. 154th.
Nearby Lakeview School was built on what the Highline School District considered an "inadequate site of 4.7 acres" in 1954-'55. The site was all that was available in the well settled area. The school opened in 1955 with eight classrooms. Four were later added--all that the site could support. In 1964 the multi-purpose building was constructed. Four classrooms were later destroyed by fire in 1985. The school was built over a period of nine years; it closed in 1975.
On September 28, 1983 the Highline School District leased Lakeview Park to King County.
The Lakeview site was declared surplus to the educational needs of the Highline School District in March, 1997. The District then sought the sale or long-term lease of the property. Sunnydale Museum and the Highline Historical Society Archives occupied a portion of the building.
On February 4, 2000 the city of Burien assumed conditions of the lease. Finding that parks and playfields were in short supply in this part of the city, it leased the southerly and easterly portions of the Lakeview site—3.3 acres—for park and recreational purposes.
This park, on the grounds of the former Lakeview School, contains a basketball court, play equipment, playfield and walking trail.
This project was
developed through a Heritage Special Projects Program grant funded by
4Culture and with the assistance
of the
Highline
Historical Society.
