Saint Edward State Park, State park in Kenmore, Washington, United States
Saint Edward State Park covers 326 acres (132 ha) in Kenmore and Kirkland, surrounding the Saint Thomas Center. Its main historic building, the Saint Edward Seminary, is a long brown-brick structure with pale horizontal banding, tall arched windows below and smaller rectangular windows above, a taller wing and a square tower on the right. Trails cross forests of Coast Douglas-fir, western redcedar, bigleaf maple, Pacific madrone and western hemlock, and the park borders an undeveloped beach on Lake Washington.
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle owned this land from the 1920s until 1977. From 1931 the Sulpician Order ran St. Edward Seminary, designed by Seattle architect John Graham Sr. and built in eight months; a second seminary followed in 1958. Declining enrollments closed both in 1977, and most of the land was sold to the state with support from Governor Dixy Lee Ray.
The park's name comes from the St. Edward Seminary, opened in 1931 and run by the Sulpician Order. The seminary closed in 1977, and the main building reopened in 2021 as the Lodge at St. Edwards after a $57 million renovation. The Carole Ann Wald Memorial Pool, built in the late 1960s, was named after a seminarian's sister.
The park is open from dawn until dusk, and trails here work well for both hikers and mountain bikers of different abilities. The ground can get muddy after rain, so wear shoes with good grip and bring layers for changing weather.
The seminary building served as a filming location for the TV series Northern Exposure and the films Singles and Butterfly Dreaming. The Carole Ann Wald Memorial Pool, built in the late 1960s, was named after a seminarian's sister and a donor's daughter.
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