Magnolia is a pleasant shock to the new visitor. A quick 5-10
minute drive from downtown, it resembles in sight and sound nothing so
much as a small town (only 70 years ago, it was still mostly dairy
farms). Isolated on a jutting peninsula and sitting on cliffs looking
out at the
Olympic Mountains, Magnolia is that often-desired quiet neighborhood close to the heart of a big city.
Magnolia is reachable only by three bridges and retains its
small-town feeling through absence of any cross-town traffic. Magnolia
shares the peninsula with the 500-acre
Discovery Park,
containing a small Army garrison and an Indian Cultural Center on the
park grounds. The town square, as it were, of Magnolia is a small hub
of restaurants, bars, and stores known as The Village.
In its suburb-like environment, parking is ample, doors are left
unlocked, and quality of lawns is always a topic of conversation (and
competition). The neighborhood is also home to a few Seattle
Mariners
and was once home to the daughter of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. And yet
the neighborhood has not developed the exclusive feel of Broadmoor or
Mercer Island, welcoming to newcomers and comfortable to old-timers.
