Pioneers left distinct flavor in Seattle's first neighborhood

By MARK HIGGINS
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Norman Durkee's hands dance nimbly across an electronic keyboard as he performs an interlude he composed for "The Servant of Two Masters," a comedy playing at the Bathhouse Theatre.

Durkee, who has long flowing hair and a beard to match, writes music for a living -- everything from ballets to commercial jingles. He works in his 1928 three-bedroom, three-bath apartment that looks like it belongs in New York or Chicago, not on Seattle's First Hill.

Durkee has lived in Wallingford and Greenwood but he says nothing compares with the lifestyle on First Hill.

First Hill is literally Seattle's first neighborhood, where many of the pioneer families put down roots, albeit temporarily. Many quickly moved on as more posh communities developed. But they left behind a rich history of homes, gardens, classic apartment buildings, social clubs, churches and even hospitals, giving First Hill its distinctive urban flavor.

The best that Seattle has to offer is within walking distance of First Hill, says Durkee: theaters, restaurants, Broadway Avenue, the Pike Place Market -- 10 minutes away on foot.

"For me, this really has been a wonderful place to live," he says. "The suburbs are really frightening to me, where everything is white and everything is geared to one financial spectrum."

Not so on First Hill, where some of Seattle's best-known millionaires and philanthropists live in high-rise luxury within sight of Yesler Terrace and Jefferson Terrace, two of the city's largest public housing developments.

Continued:

• Today's tycoons live near majestic mansions of old
• Neighborhood is one of city's most pedestrian-friendly