The Ballard Avenue Historic District is significant to the City of Seattle as a well-preserved commercial section of a Historic neighborhood community. Homesteaded as early as 1853, platted and promoted by the West Coast Improvement Company 1887-1889, and incorporated as a municipality in 1890, Ballard was one of the largest and most successful townsite developments which surrounded Seattle in the early days. Its juxtaposition to a hinterland of timber resources and its ready Access to world markets via railroad and Puget Sound led to its success. By 1895, Ballard was one of the largest shingle-manufacturing centers in the world. Buildings along Ballard’s Historic Main Street date from two major periods of growth between 1890 and 1930. The four-block Ballard Avenue Landmark District was the first historic district created by the City of Seattle outside of Pioneer Square.

By making a continuous waterway of man-made channels and inland bodies extending nearly eight miles between Puget Sound and Lake Washington, the Lake Washington Ship Canal opened up a cast fresh-water harbor to ocean-going vessels and thus complemented Seattle’s deep-water port facilities in Elliot Bay. The workable plan for the canal and locks was delineated and promoted by Major Hiram M. Chittenden, Seattle District Engineer 1906-1908 and realized by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1917.