Lake View Cemetery

Seattle, Washington’s Lake View Cemetery established in 1872 is one of the oldest cemeteries in the city.  Many of the early Seattle pioneers are buried here, as is Princess Angeline, the daughter of Chief Seattle (Si’ahl) for whom the city was named.  I have two sets of grandparents buried here and visit once and a while but I had never been when the cherry trees were in bloom.  There are far more cherry trees in the cemetery than I thought and they rival those on the University of Washington campus for beauty and display.

Bob has a two volume set of little books entitled “Footloose in Seattle” written by Janice Krenmayr published in 1966 by the Seattle Times.  It is compilation of newspaper columns she wrote as she walked around the city and although lots of things have changed it still offers plenty of suggestions, history, and interesting facts about places to visit within the city.  Lake View Cemetery was one of the places in the booklet.  Since it said that one of the highest points and best views of the city could be found in the cemetery we decided to go, check out the view and see if we could find some of the pioneer graves.  As the photo above indicates the trees were in full flower and gorgeous.  This cemetery is like a park and a delight to walk through looking at the historical monuments and markers.

The gravestone of mother’s adoptive parents, I.C. and Petra Landaas Lee is just beyond the second curve as one enters the cemetery gates so we began our walk in that direction working our way up to the top of the hill and from there back down the other side making a giant loop and seeing most of the grounds.   From the Lee’s marker we could see more of the cherry trees including a very large tree quite close to their resting place.

I.C. Lee & Petra Landaas Lee

Once at the top of the hill we did find the graves of early pioneer Henry Yesler, Princess Angeline, Arthur Denny, a founding father of the city, and his family, and the Watsons of Bonney Watson funeral home.  I liked the green feet on that monument.  We took a photo of the view from the top of the hill.  There are a few Lepsoe’s buried here also.  The Lepsoe family had engaged Petra’s sister, Maggie, in Norway as a Nanny and traveling companion in 1892 when they came to America.  The oral history suggests that they were somehow related to Karen Landaas the mother of Maggie and Petra. 

Henry Yesler family

Princess Angeline

Arthur Denny family

The Watson family

Lepsoe family

View from the top of the hill

Two special trees:  a Giant Sequoia, above, and an ornamental flowering tree, below, not yet in bloom with interesting pruning and twisty branches.

Our loop walk brought us to the other family grave, that of Dick and Clara Lorig Thompson, my mother’s biological parents.  Mom’s sister, Lorraine, passed away 23 February 2015, and I was thinking of her also when I placed these roses on the stone for their mother and father.  Like Mom, Lorraine was a lovely woman of grace, talent, and beauty.  Both sisters together now with their parents and both missed by me and others.