Seattle is full of magical places. One of them is the East Harrison Shoreline Streetend, fondly known as "Hidden Beach." It has been a beloved place for generations of community members: families, swimmers, walkers, and anyone who craves a simple place to enjoy a view or a quiet moment.

For decades people have cared for this place informally. While Hidden Beach has an official "steward", many people regularly steward the streetend on their own. They routinely remove trash, glass, broken branches, they weed, rake the paths, attend work parties, haul refuse to the transfer station and keep an eye on everything for the benefit of all. 

In the last several years we became aware of substantial private encroachments into this public space. More recently we have seen new attempts to create additional encroachments that restrict the public's right to use and enjoy it. 

As a group of concerned citizens, we organized ourselves to address this problem and created The Friends of Hidden Beach.  We are currently challenging encroachments by adjacent homeowners on both the south and north boundaries. All streetends are under the jurisdiction of the Seattle Dept. of Transportation (SDOT), and so it is to them that we are appealing for help. 

As a community group we have been in communication with Omar Akkari of SDOT and have worked to understand how to protect this streetend. After nearly three years of effort, our group submitted a permit application to SDOT to recover and revitalize as much of the public space as possible for the use of Seattle citizens. It is an ROW (Right of Way) Construction permit Record no.  SUCONST0004094

On this website you may view homeowner encroachments, Friends of Hidden Beach's proposed plan, our permit application information, and background to help explain our current efforts.  At this date we are awaiting feedback from SDOT on our permit application.

“My kids and now my grandkids have learned to swim here.” read more

We are indebted to the many citizens who make up Friends of Hidden Beach for their activism and generosity. We are also incredibly grateful to The Friends of Streetends who have served as mentors and wise advisors.  They have helped us navigate the complex and often confusing path we have taken to get this far.