Clyde Hill

Built on the luxury of strawberries, Clyde Hill remains a sweet, natural neighborhood on Seattle’s Eastside. It is the central hub of a region of affluent communities in the north-west corner of Bellevue serviced by the Evergreen Point Bridge to downtown Seattle. Like many of its neighbors, Clyde Hill is a peaceful district dedicated mostly to single-family homes, though it is very close to the retail and commercial districts of central Bellevue.

While it didn’t get its name until the late 1940’s, the area known today as Clyde Hill has been inhabited since the homesteading days of the 1800’s. An Irish settler by the name of Patrick Downey was the first to stake a claim to the region, filing for a 160-acre plot in 1882. With a combination of agriculture and timber, Downey significantly expanded his claim and began growing strawberries along with some of the newer settlers in the area, taking a small steamboat from Meydenbauer Bay to Seattle where their luxury crop went to market and brought a significant amount of wealth back to the as-yet-unnamed area. It wasn’t until the post-World War II housing boom that Clyde Hill got its name from the unofficial thoroughfare, Clyde Road, itself named after the Scottish Firth of Clyde thanks to a resident Scot called Sam Boddy.

Within the 1.1 square mile area of Clyde Hill, only two lots are zoned for commercial use. There is a gas station in the north-west corner and a coffee shop just to the east. Because of the tightly-controlled land use policies of the Greater Seattle area, this zoning is unlikely to change. Bellevue Square Mall is just south of Clyde Hill on 8^th Street and Bellevue Way. The neighborhood has several parks, including the Hidden Valley Sports Park, Meydenbauer Park on the bay of the same name and Clyde Hill Town Park at the center of the district. Just west of 84^th Avenue is the Overlake Golf Course and Country Club officially in the town of Medina.

Clyde Hill has four schools, two of which are public and two that are private. Clyde Hill Elementary and Chinook Middle School are part of the Bellevue public school system serving students from Kindergarten through the 8^th grade. The private Sacred Heart school is a K-8 program while the Bellevue Christian School covers the entire range of primary education, PK-12.

Because of its high elevation relative to its surrounding neighborhoods, Clyde Hill enjoys a number of nice views. To the west is the Seattle skyline, Lake Washington and the Olympic Mountains, while the Bellevue skyline and the Cascade mountain range is to the east. A variety of classic Northwestern foliage grows in abundance in the neighborhood while the extensive roadways make travel to Seattle, Kirkland, Bellevue and Redmond extremely simple.

With enviable views, spacious plots and easy access to the best of urban culture from its neighboring cities, Clyde Hill has a lot to offer for potential buyers. Prosperous and designed for families, it is a fine example of a Seattle suburb.