Seattle Sun Newspaper - Vol. 8, Issue 1, January 2004

Copyright 2003 Seattle Sun. Please feel free to use the article below in your research. Be sure to cite the Seattle Sun as your source.

Fremont's 'Slippery Slope' to be Ernst Park

By JAMES BUSH

What's an Ernst Park?

That's the question many Fremont residents were asking after learning that name had been chosen for the new .17 acre park site adjacent to the Fremont Library.

Chip Nevins, parks committee chair for the Fremont Neighborhood Council (FNC), says the news came as a complete surprise to people who had attended meetings on the park's creation. "It seems like there could have been a little more coordination with the people who were working on the park," he notes.

Benjamin Grossman, FNC president, says he wrote down his e-mail address on parks department sign-in sheets several times during the planning process, "but they haven't actually sent me anything." He thinks planning participants should have been notified immediately about the naming decision and been given an explanation of the department's rationale for choosing the name.

Paula Hoff, the parks staffer who coordinates the naming process, says that the three-member committee (Hoff, Parks Commission Chair Bruce Bentley, and Lake City resident Cheryl Klinker) that reviews possible park names was initially split between two different choices for the tiny green space: Fremont Library Park and Solstice Park. Seattle Parks Superintendent Ken Bounds, who has final decision-making authority, decided on Ernst Park.

The name, which honors former Seattle Parks Commissioner Ambrose B. Ernst, was suggested by Haller Lake neighborhood resident and local historian Gregory Dziekonski. Ernst, a prominent publisher and member of the local Democratic Party, was appointed to the Board of Parks Commissioners in 1906 and served until 1913, when he left to accept an appointment to the State Industrial Insurance Commission.

Ernst's years of service on the board coincides with both the implementation of the Olmsted Seattle parks plan and the rise of the playfield movement, an effort to ensure that sports facilities were made available to young people. When Ernst died in 1939 at the age of 78, the Seattle Times eulogized him as "the Father of Seattle Playfields."

Dziekonski says he actually did the Ernst historical research about three years ago, when the Parks Department was considering possible names for four new parks. Ambrose Ernst was the grandfather of his friend Gerri Spring.

Dziekonski and Spring, who died in 1992, both played the violin and had performed together in musical productions. She had mentioned her grandfather, although she knew just enough of his story to gain the interest of historian Dziekonski.

"She knew he had been on the parks board and had had something to do with inviting the Olmsteds here," Dziekonski says.

While his research showed that Ernst had been an important parks supporter, the name "Ernst Park" was rejected at that time because of a lack of a geographic connection between Ernst and the parks being named, Dziekonski recalls.

However, when he spotted an item in the July 2003 edition of the Seattle Sun seeking name suggestions for the Fremont site, Dziekonski remembered that Ernst had not only been a Fremont resident, but had lived directly across North 35th Street from the park site during his board tenure.

Dziekonski hurriedly put together another package of information before the deadline.

Hoff says that several suggested park names were collected during the planning process. Most of the contenders had a local twist, including Universe Park or Center of the Universe Park (the neighborhood has long claimed that status) and Solstice Park or Fremont Solstice Park in reference to the annual Fremont Solstice Parade.

Also considered were Troll Park (the Fremont Troll sculpture which is located just a block away), Republic Park (for Republic of Fremont, another neighborhood nickname), and Hardliah Park (pronounced "hardly a park," a wry comment on the new park's small size).

The official criteria considered by the committee include the park's geographical location, historical or cultural significance, and natural features. Parks can be named after persons who have made a significant contribution to parks and recreation in Seattle, but only after they've been dead at least three years.

"Usually we want there to be a link between the person and the park that's being named," says Hoff. "[Ambrose Ernst] actually lived right across the street from the park, so I think Ken felt there was a good connection there."

The community often gives a clear direction on what they want a park to be named, but no unanimous neighborhood choice emerged during the planning process, adds Hoff.

Don't expect any protests over the park name. Grossman says the FNC will probably send a letter to parks officials (on the theme: "We are aggravated"), but Bounds' decision will likely stand.

The only question now is whether the name "Ernst Park" will eventually displace the unofficial local nickname for the little park site, which slopes sharply down from North 35th Street. Folks around the neighborhood call it "The Slippery Slope."