Evergreen Washelli Park is the final resting spot for more than 160,000 souls. They include local dignitaries such as Bertha Knight Landes, Seattle’s first woman mayor from the 1920s, Judge Thomas Burke, whose moniker is best known now as a trail namesake, and David and Louisa Denny, the original landowners of the grounds and some of the earliest white settlers to the Emerald City.
There are no known superstars of music, theater or sports resting within the 144 or so acres. They can be found in other noteworthy cemeteries across our region.
Evergreen Washelli instead is the solemn grounds where some 5000 white marble headstones take pride of place – and, frankly, take your breath away – when visited anytime of year. No more inspiring and emotional are these grounds in north Seattle than when American flags stand shoulder to shoulder with the simple white markers of service members who are laid to rest – row after row after row – on a beautiful rolling hillside within the Veterans Memorial Cemetery.
The veterans cemetery was dedicated in 1927 – about four decades after the Dennys converted their land to a new resting place for family members, including early on for one of their twin boys who died as an infant. The first headstone of a veteran was placed on Memorial Day 1927, starting a long line of markers, memories and mourning.
The Dennys named the grounds Oak Lake Cemetery. It later took on the title Washelli, said to mean “westerly wind” in Makah, a nod to the many indigenous people buried there, including Cheshiahud, a Duwamish chief, and his wife, both friends of the Dennys. The cemetery on the east side of Aurora Avenue North merged in the 1920s with Evergreen Cemetery, its neighbor to the west of what is now Highway 99, and the names were combined many years later.
A colorful tower was constructed in the 1950s atop a hill overlooking the veterans cemetery. It chimes with the distinct sound of carillon bells at the top of the hour while standing as a permanent memorial to the veterans resting at its foot.
The military grounds are also adorned by 32-pounder guns – two of which were once used on the USS Constitution, constructed and launched in the late 1700s – as well as a statue of The Doughboy Soldier. True origins of the word “Doughboy” are up for conjecture, with books explaining the name came from the buttons worn by U. S. infantrymen that resembled doughboy dumplings to the whitish clay that soldiers used to polish their uniforms and which became “doughie” in rain.
Flags are typically set aside the veterans’ headstones and a service is held each Memorial Day and Veterans Day in tribute to those who donned the uniform for our country.
Whether it be Memorial Day, Veterans Day or another holiday, we should never forget those who stood guard for us so that we may enjoy our freedom today.