By MARK HIGGINS
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

For years, Madison Park was a sleepy little place largely overlooked by the rest of the city. Back in the 1920s, Madison Park was largely a summer retreat. "That is why the lots are very small on some streets," says Margaret Hanson, who grew up in nearby Washington Park. "We used to call the homes back then 'beach shacks.' "

After World War II, homes and boat houses were torn down and replaced with larger, permanent structures, Hanson says.

Madison Park was and still is a wonderful place for kids. One of the most exciting things Hanson remembers was when the circus would come to town and set up its tents in the grassy fields near what are now the gate to Broadmoor.

Another treat for Hanson was when her father, Dr. Carl Leede, would take a break from his busy schedule at Swedish Hospital and take the family for a row on Lake Washington.

Hanson says she still enjoys watching families out for a Sunday row along the shore. She lives in the Park Shore Retirement center, a 15-story building built in 1963 when developers were allowed to construct apartments and condos over the water.

Such pier construction is prohibited now, but for those who live at Park Shore and a handful of other over-the-water buildings, the views of Lake Washington, Mount Rainier, Mount Baker and the Cascade range are spectacular.

Sam Jones still enjoys the lakeside scenery. Jones grew up in Madison Valley and still lives there. He remembers delivering the Seattle Star newspaper in Madison Park in the late 1930s, when monthly subscriptions cost 50 cents. A ride on the Madison streetcar cost 2 cents.

As a kid, Jones and his buddies would ride the streetcar to Madison Park and swim almost every day during the summer. Back then, log booms floated off the shoreline -- a dangerous but alluring swimmer's destination.

Those were the days when two ferries still took passengers and freight from the end of Madison Street over to Kirkland and the Eastside -- about a 20-minute trip, Jones recalls.

Today, with all the changes and traffic, Jones says it can take nearly that long to drive across the 520 bridge at rush hour.