Central Area

Today, my husband and I walked streets in the Central Area. We walked 5 miles along streets that were in the Madrona, Leschi, Mann and Minor neighborhoods. We were filling in streets we'd missed from 20th to 33rd between Marion and Alder so I won't mention many of the highlights of prior walks in these areas.

This area is dominated by Garfield High School, with its ball fields (which were posted as being a weapons free zone) and the new Quincy Jones Performance Center,

Garfield Community Center and Medgar Evers Pool.



This area is home to Little Ethiopia and has lots of Ethiopian restaurants, Hawkins Garden P-Patch Community Garden,

Powell Barnett Park with its lovely green space,

playground and even castle-like restrooms,

the small, triangular Gerber Park,

Trinity Faith Temple (we could hear music coming from the unadorned building),

Zion United Church of Prayer, Madrona Presbyterian Church (both pictured in prior posts) and 23rd and Cherry Fellowship Hall.

These neighborhoods are all close together but each has its own vibe. Madrona, Leschi and Mann had many pampered houses and gardens. Minor's pampering varied street by street and even house by house.

Along the way, we spotted a keyboard tree,

Seven Star Women's Kung Fu, an old phone booth in a front yard,

some impressive trees,

trees wrapped in an assortment of fabrics,

a mutt mitt dispenser,

what looked like a sleeping porch (with a hammock and netting)

and an unexpected footpath and staircase at Arlington and 31st.

We observed lots of athletes using the ball fields and tennis courts and biking along the streets. We also encountered our first pitbull; thankfully, it was behind a fence and didn't seem menacing.