The Seattle Gas Light Company opened a coal and oil gasification plant at the north end of Lake Union in 1906. It supplied gas to homes and industries in and near Seattle, until natural gas became more available in the mid-1950s. Over the years, the gas works and a nearby tar plant badly polluted the soil, air, and water in the area.

The 1903 Olmsted Report had proposed that the area become a park, and after the gas works closed in 1956, the city decided to follow through on this plan. It bought the property in 1962, hired landscape designer Richard Haag, and came up with a plan that included the preservation of some of the old industrial equipment. Still, doubts continued as to whether it could ever be decontaminated sufficiently. In August 1972, when this photo was taken, the site was still filled with mud and old industrial remains. Periodic cleanup and remediation at the popular park have continued in the 21st century.

Caption information source: “Can this be a park?”, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, August 26, 1972, page A3.
Caption information source: “Gas Works Park (Seattle)”, by Shannon Sawyer, Historylink.org essay 20978, March 19, 2020.