By MICHAEL BARBER
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

A historic marker along one of the park's short trails towers over what resembles a small, cement baptismal pool. Reddish muck nearby is iron algae. And if you touch the water's oily sheen, it cracks rather than swirls, meaning it comes from plant -- not processed -- oil. Once the main headwater of Green Lake, the Licton Springs stream was enclosed in buried pipe by development in about 1919 to ensure protection of the lake's water supply. Although water was later diverted to storm sewers, some still emerges near Green Lake's kiddie pool, Ryals said.

That development began when the firm of Calhoun, Denny and Ewing bought the site, copyrighted the name Licton, and offered subdivisions so Seattle residents could "get away from the roar and dust of downtown."

In 1934, E.A. Jensen developed a bathhouse and two-story steam spa for "rheumatism, neuritis, arthritis and asthma." Jensen heated peat from the larger pool, which settlers had named Iron Spring, for thermal treatments. He bottled mineral water for sale. A favorite remedy was "potassium broth" made from the watercress and spinach grown with spring water.

A 67-room health spa and sanitarium was planned in 1951 but never materialized. The city bought the site as a park in 1960. By 1963, the neighborhood was carved up to make way for I-5 and North Seattle Community College.

The college, where Meridian Avenue North becomes College Way North, is a cultural and educational centerpiece, with a theater, library and art gallery. And residents sometimes amble over to the culinary arts school, which offers fine dining at cost.

The neighborhood population of less than 8,000 roughly doubles with the commuter influx of about 8,600 community college students. To ease congestion, the college is building a new entrance at Corliss Avenue North and North 92nd Street. Also under construction are a high-tech learning center and a child care center.

"We have a really good working relationship with the community, since being in the middle of a residential neighborhood could be testy," college spokeswoman Jeanne Rickey said.