The building at the foot of East Madison is a wood-frame saltbox with clapboard siding. Its north and south walls have Palladian-style windows, and concrete stairs on either side lead down to the beach. Most days it's a preschool. On December 5 it hosts the drop-in Winter Wonderland crafts hour before the tree lighting. On December 19 it's where kids line up for Santa photos before everyone heads down to the water for the Christmas Ship.
The building is also being redrawn. Friends of Madison Park scheduled its Tuesday, November 10 neighborhood meeting inside the Bathhouse, where the architects would show draft renderings of the Bathhouse Renovation and Shoreline Restoration project and take questions. The holiday season and the redesign share an address, 1900 43rd Ave E. To see what the new drawings have to work around, it helps to know how this building has been rebuilt before.
A bathhouse that exists because the lake dropped
According to the City of Seattle's historical sites inventory, Madison Park began as a private amusement park at the lake end of Judge John J. McGilvra's Madison Street cable railway. It had a pavilion, piers and two floating bandstands, and a diamond on the north side of Madison Street hosted Seattle's first professional baseball game on May 24, 1890.
Then the Ship Canal was built. In 1916 Lake Washington dropped nine feet, a new shoreline appeared, and the old waterfront structures were left on dry land and had to come down. In 1919 the Seattle Municipal Railway built a small wood-frame bathhouse on the new beach.
Every version since then has been a response to who was using the building:
- 1919: A modest rectangular building with a hip roof sat near the street and faced a grassy beach. The Parks Department took over the property in 1922.
- 1929: Parks remodeled it. Less than ten years later the department called it unsanitary and inadequate.
- 1937 to 1938: During the Depression the Works Progress Administration enlarged it, adding locker and bag storage for the beach crowds. The WPA also built the concrete beach steps along the shoreline and the tennis courts across the street.
- Mid-1980s: It was remodeled again to work as a more flexible community center.
What survives is the only early wood-frame bathhouse left in Seattle. The ones at Green Lake, Madrona and Seward Park were all replaced with masonry buildings. The survey that produced the inventory found that it appears to meet the criteria for both the National Register of Historic Places and Seattle's Landmarks Preservation Ordinance. Each rebuild so far kept the wood frame and changed what happened inside it, and the current project starts from that same building.
Who the building belongs to for the next ten years
This June the city settled who uses the building day to day. The Seattle City Council passed Ordinance 127442 on June 2, 2026, and the mayor approved it on June 4. It authorizes a ten-year operations-and-use contract with Madison Park Cooperative Preschool. The contract gives the preschool the premises all year, with school-year programming January through June and again September through December, and summer programming in July and August. One outside group keeps its slot:
"The City will not permit the use of the Premises to any other group at any time except for the grandfathered group, Sun of Madison, that uses the Bathhouse on Sundays, from 9:30AM to 11:30AM weekly."
The contract also lets the preschool use the space for community events and meetings with permission from Seattle Parks and Recreation. The outdoor restrooms and other public areas stay shared with the general public. The lifeguard station faces the lake inside the same building, but it sits outside the preschool's premises. That's the arrangement behind a neighborhood meeting being held in a preschool, and behind a craft hour and Santa photos taking place in the Bathhouse. This describes the contract only in general terms. The ordinance itself is the authoritative text.
What the redesign is trying to fit inside that
Friends of Madison Park leads the renovation in partnership with Seattle Parks and Recreation and the Seattle Parks Foundation. On its project page, the group says it wants to make the Bathhouse "a year-round hub for community activities." The plan names Signal Architecture + Research as the building's architect. The stated goal is to keep the building's historic character, continue its use as a preschool, and add flexible space for indoor meetings, public gatherings and exercise classes.
That's the same task the 1980s remodel took on: one wood-frame room asked to serve more people. The difference now is that a decade-long contract sets the preschool's place in the building before the drawings are finished. The project is designed around that from the start. Friends says it has spent more than two years working with Seattle Parks and Recreation, the Madison Park Co-op Preschool, Signal and Anchor QEA.
The plan also goes beyond the building:
- Upgraded restrooms and better space for lake access, swimming, lifeguard equipment and small-craft storage, with a look at whether kayaks and paddleboards could be offered.
- Shoreline restoration to address erosion, remove invasive plants, support migrating salmon and improve water quality.
- Barrier-free access to the waterfront and safer street crossings.
- Energy-efficient renovation of the building itself.
For the shoreline, Friends worked with the Seattle Parks Foundation and Seattle Parks and Recreation to collect feedback from more than 500 park users. It also brought in the landscape architecture firm Anchor QEA to assess the park's current conditions.
Money for the next stage is coming partly from the neighborhood. Party for the Park on October 24 raised more than $117,000. That total is split among Friends' free community events, neighborhood beautification and the project's second phase. Guests at the party got a first look at the proposed Bathhouse vision. The November 10 meeting had been moved from October 13 so the architectural team could present at the Bathhouse. Updates on the drawings go out through the Friends of Madison Park newsletter.
December, from East Madison down to the beach
The holiday calendar starts at a few spots along Madison and ends on the beach steps the WPA poured in the 1930s. Here's the schedule as published by Friends of Madison Park:
- Saturday, December 5, 10 a.m. to noon. Artist Anne Woodford leads a wreath-making class at 4015 East Madison, using cedar, fir and eucalyptus on a grapevine base. It costs $60 per person, one child per adult is welcome, and there are no refunds because the greens are cut the day before.
- December 5, 3 to 4:30 p.m. Winter Wonderland crafts, drop-in, at the Bathhouse.
- December 5, 5 p.m. Tree lighting and singalong in the park by the playground, with McGilvra Elementary students singing.
- Saturday, December 12. Two holiday artisan markets. The indoor market runs 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 4015 East Madison, and the outdoor market runs 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Bank of America lot at Madison and 41st Avenue.
- Saturday, December 19, 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. Santa photos at the Bathhouse.
- December 19, 2:35 to 2:55 p.m. The Christmas Ship at the beach, followed by a bonfire.
The afternoon ship time is correct. On Argosy Cruises' 2026 Christmas Ship schedule, Madison Park is the shoreline stop on the first of three December 19 sailings out of Kirkland City Dock, listed as "2:35-2:55 pm at Madison Park," with the Emerald City Voices choir on board. The later sailings that evening stop at Warren G. Magnuson Park from 5:35 to 5:55 p.m. and at Sheridan Beach Club for a private event. Argosy marks Madison Park as a planned onshore event site and notes that events, times and locations can change. It also says shore gatherings are hosted by the park and community, not by Argosy. The ships sail rain or shine. Argosy cancels only if the mayor or governor declares a state of emergency. A 2:35 arrival means the choir sings in daylight, about 20 minutes after Santa photos wrap up in the building above.
The weeks before, along the business district
Before December, there's a cleanup. The Fall Clean-Up is Saturday, November 14, from 9 to 10 a.m. Check in at the table by the Bank of America parking lot, and bring your own tools or borrow one there. Last fall more than 40 volunteers filled over 100 leaf bags, and Friends wants to top that this year.
The rest of November happens in the storefronts:
- November 23 to December 7: Wellspring Family Services toy drive. Collection bins are at Red Wagon Toys and Parkshore Senior Living, and only new toys are accepted.
- November 25, 6:30 p.m.: The Mad Book Club with Madison Books meets at Parlour Wines to discuss Italo Calvino's If On a Winter's Night a Traveler. No sign-up is needed.
- November 27 to December 5: The Domicile Holiday Art Market sells illustrated cards, handmade ornaments, ceramics, textiles and small original paintings by local artists. A Small Business Saturday party with live music from Faith from Sugar is on November 28, and details are at domicile.design.
- November 29, 5 to 8 p.m.: Live music by Moradakmai at Bamboo Thai. Proceeds support children's and youth education in Thailand.
The business district itself is changing. The Independent Pizzeria closed on October 16 after more than 16 years. KIRO 7 reported that owner Tom Siegel was retiring and that co-owner Tora Hennessey said the space would pass to a new owner. Shops along Madison change hands over the years. The Bathhouse has stood on the same beach since 1938, and the Christmas Ship is due below it at 2:35 p.m. on Saturday, December 19.
If the Bathhouse's long remodel history has you thinking about the wood-frame house you live in, we'd be glad to help. At Stanford Group, we walk Madison Park homeowners through what an older structure can take, which updates protect its character, and what a remodel would really cost. Request a personalized market + renovation consultation and we'll start with your house.
