A few ads from the pre-World War One era, out the Seattle PI. Two tracks: Madison Park, a half mile; and the Meadows, a mile.
I've read that the Meadows was located at what became the Boeing Field but I'm not positive on that. Been looking for a map from that era online but haven't found one yet.
Most of my research has been done around the July 4th AAA races at Tacoma. Seems like the racing at both Seattle tracks involved the same cars that competed at Tacoma. Bob Burman, in 1913, and Teddy Tetzlaff, in 1914, both carried on further north to race at Vancouver, BC's Minoru park.
More about Minoru soon. But first, a beginning on what little I have on Madison Park and the Meadows in Seattle.
(I understand that Seattle was known as the Queen City until just recently. Now it's known as the Emerald City. History....)
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The Meadows was located near what is now Boeing Field, though the runway does not overlay any of the old racetrack itself.
(In spite of what's reported in the essay on The Meadows at HistoryLink.org, which is full of mistakes, the first auto race held at The Meadows was in 1902, not 1905. Many other places also incorrectly say that the first race there was in 1905. My repeated efforts, including full documentation, to have the errors corrected, have been a failure.)
Yes, many of the same drivers and cars that raced at the Tacoma Speedway also raced at The Meadows, but the Tacoma race was the big one in Western Washington.
It was an exciting time for auto racing. Cars from the Indianapolis 500 would come to race at Tacoma, then a few would go north to The Meadows at Seattle. Even though The Meadows had a railroad spur, in 1914 Earl Cooper drove his Wisconsin-powered Stutz race car from the Tacoma Speedway to The Meadows on the Seattle-Tacoma highway. The Potlatch races at The Meadows in July of 1914, featuring Tetzlaf and Cooper, was not only the last motor race held at the horse track, but was the last event of any kind staged there. The waving of the checkered flag on July 19, 1914 marked the end of The Meadows racetrack. (That just happens to be 101 years ago today.)
At the time there was tremendous rivalry between Seattle and Tacoma for just about everything, and Seattle wanted a big track dedicated to automobiles (instead of having to use horse tracks). Seattle interests had plans for no less than three big auto speedways, one on the site of The Meadows and two near Renton. One of the plans for a Renton speedway was enormous, having not only a motor racing track, but a half mile oval for horses, an airport, and facilities for a state fair. While Seattle talked about a big track, Tacoma actually built one, and Seattle never caught up. With the opening of the planked track of the Tacoma Speedway, the Seattle plans all dried up. It didn't seem as though the area could support more than one big auto track and ultimately it couldn't support only one, and the Tacoma track closed.
Madison Park opened in 1908 and closed in 1915. (Its last event was a rodeo.)
I've located the exact site of The Meadows and overlaid the track onto a contemporary aerial photo, but it's part of an article I've written on the history of The Meadows for a horse magazine, so I can't freely share the map until the article has run (sometime in the second half of 2015).
Thanks !!
bfp
Brian, if you have an email address you'd be willing to share, I'll send you bits and pieces of what I have on the motor racing aspects of The Meadows, Madison Park and Washington Park. It's by no means complete, as I was looking into the horse racing at the latter two tracks as it related to The Meadows, but you may not have all that I found ... and for all I know, you may find it to be a nice little pile.
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