Fremont: Seattle’s Best Neighborhood for Art, History & Modern Living

Fremont has always been a place for creators, craftspeople, water and nature lovers. And since the beginning, it has been at the Center of the Universe.

The Fremont neighborhood and its surroundings have always been part of the ancestral homelands of the Duwamish people, a Coast Salish tribe whose presence in the area stretches back thousands of years. The Duwamish established seasonal camps along the shores of Lake Union, which they referred to as XáXu7cHoo (sometimes pronounced “Ha-Ah-Chu”), meaning "small body of water," a name that spoke to its cultural and geographical importance. The Duwamish established canoe routes on the lake where, long before the digging of the Ship Canal and the Montlake Cut, foot trails connected Lake Washington, Lake Union, Puget Sound, and nearby villages. The Fremont area likely had access points along these ancient routes, including trails used by the Duwamish to portage canoes between waterways. These paths were eventually used or transformed into roadways, traces of which appear even today in Fremont’s modern streets.

Fremont’s geographic location, set between salt and fresh water, continued to be a significant factor in its rapid growth post-European settlement. A navigable stream connected Fremont to the west, and Lake Union sat to its east. Initially, the heavily-wooded neighborhood was not only a residential suburb, but it was also a center for the logging and lumber industry. Seattleites seeking to establish residence in the new neighborhood either paddled canoes across Lake Union or rode the 12-passenger steamer, Maude Foster to reach Fremont’s shores. The late 1800s brought more change, with the arrival of streetcars and in 1910, the Interurban Railroad chose Fremont to be the transfer station for travel north to Everett. If you look carefully, you can still see traces of the railway under some of the neighborhood’s streets. In 1917, the Lake Washington Ship Canal and the Hiram Chittenden Locks opened, allowing easy transit from the lakes to the Sound. The water connection spurred new business and Fremont community shipwrights crafted vessels for the Navy as well as built-to-order pleasure boats for Seattle’s rapidly growing population.

It wasn’t all about work though. Beginning in the 1960s, the culture of Fremont shifted to embrace the counterculture movement sweeping the nation. Free-spirited residents crafted and installed public art, created beloved traditions such as the Fremont Solstice Parade and of course, installed a giant troll under the Aurora Bridge. In 1978, Waiting for the Interurban, a statue by Richard Beyer and one of the community's oldest public artworks, was installed to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Fremont's founding. Today, Fremont bustles with a mix of business and pleasure: bright minds creating new technologies, small business owners creating unique goods and services, and artists adding fresh and fun ways to engage in our city. The community is a melding of new and old, brimming with vibrant creative artwork—and creative residents.

You can experience Fremont’s history – and even live in it – thanks to the efforts of locally-owned Cliffside Properties. Our collection of early-Seattle bungalows and restored vintage apartment buildings preserves the historic texture of this beloved community. In addition, we recently opened 29 brand-new modern apartments in Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood.