Located between Green Lake and Wallingford is a knot of streets that never ceases to confound drivers.
On one corner, a signpost has two signs for First Avenue North pointing in different directions. Frightening for the uninitiated, residents like their twisting roads.
The neighborhood is known as Tangle Town, but the residents don't seem to know it.
Some say the area is part of Wallingford. Others locate it in the Green Lake neighborhood, and a handful of people think of it as Tangle Town.
The on-line encyclopedia Wikipedia.org puts it in Wallingford, though it acknowledges, "Some consider it to lie outside of Wallingford proper."
A revival
The neighborhood is defined by a small commercial area that runs along North 56th Street to Meridian Avenue North. Restaurants, bars and cafes make up most of the businesses. There are also a handful of lawyers, a dentist and an insurance office.
The city's Department of Neighborhoods identifies the area as one of Green Lake's four principal neighborhood-commercial areas in its Green Lake 2020 Neighborhood Plan. Like Green Lake and Wallingford, the bungalows built in the Victorian and Craftsman styles line the street.
The first time most residents heard the name "Tangle Town" was when the Elysian Tangle Town Brewery opened its doors in 2003. Reflective of the neighborhood, the brew pub has a laid-back, family-friendly atmosphere.
The name dates back to the earlier part of the 20th century and was used by the trolleys that ran through the area, according to Dave Buhler, director of services and one of the Elysian Tangle Town's three owners.
"We've revived the name. It's pretty cool," Buhler said.
Real estate agents and the media have started using "Tangle Town" in listings and articles. "That didn't happen prior to us using the name," Buhler added.
Tangle Town Condominiums went in nearby, and Briggs Pharma-cy was renamed Rxtra Pharmacy Tangle Town.
The pharmacy, a mainstay in the area for decades, closed its doors in February. Two large, homemade banners hang in the front windows. One reads "Thank you, Tangletown."
No recollection of the name
Most of the Elysian Tangle Town's clientele is from the adjacent area. However, the customers don't identify with the name Tangle Town, according to one server who has worked in the Elysian for two years.
Gary Wall does not recall ever hearing the term in the more than 50 years, since his family moved to the neighborhood in 1954. He was 4 at the time.
Wall usually talks in a relaxed manner, but when asked about the first time he heard the name Tangle Town, he quickly shoots back.
"I never heard of it until [the Elysian] came up with it," he said.
Wall pulls out his cell phone, calls his older brother, Greg, and asks him if he remembers hearing the name. He doesn't either.
Not even Wall's stepfather referred to the area as Tangle Town, and his family moved into the neighborhood in 1918.
A changed neighborhood
The neighborhood of Wall's youth was a stable, idyllic community. He knew every family on his block and the location of every fruit tree. The kids played baseball in the triangle formed by North 57th Street and Keystone Avenue North.
"We could play for hours without ever having a car go by," Wall recalled. "The way the streets are here, people get lost in here, so everybody avoided it when I was a kid."
Today, traffic and pedestrian safety are the two major concerns of the neighborhood, according to Beth Pflug, the Department of Neighborhoods' district coordinator for the area. These were the primary issues residents raised during Mayor Greg Nickels' neighborhood walk through the neighborhood last May.
Residents have been working with the Seattle Department of Transportation to resolve the problems, Pflug said. As a district coordinator, she helps connect community advocates with the relevant city agency.
Several grocers were located along North 56th Street. Located where Elysian Tangle Town now sits, Jack Lamont's Grocery was a local landmark.
"What changed the neighborhood was Food Giant going in on [North] 45th [Street], and Albertson's going in down here. It took out all the small grocery stores," Wall said.
The '80s saw a revitalization of the area, though. Wall and his wife purchased their house in 1986, and saw the price double in little more than a year. The arrival of the Honey Bear Bakery spurred on the health of the little business district. The bakery became a bastion of the Wallingford and Green Lake communities.
Catching on
Located along 56th Street, just down the street from the pub and pharmacy, is Leny's. Dimly lit with low ceilings, pool tables, baskets of fries and large glasses of beer, it is the quintessential local bar. Only one of the patrons had heard the name Tangle Town before the Elysian opened.
One resident who has lived in the area since the '50s, recalled hearing that the name had to do with streetcars getting hung up when they made the sharp turn from 56th Street onto Meridian Avenue North.
Few people think of the area as Tangle Town, said resident Warren Patterson. Now, he thinks the name is "catching on a bit."
Mark Iverson, a Ballard resident who has been coming to the neighborhood for about a decade, said he first heard the term when the brew pub moved in.
"Someone used it to describe the area because all the streets are confusing, and I thought that was apropos. I used to call it Wallingford, and someone else would call it Green Lake. 'Tangle Town''s more fun," Iverson said outside Mighty-O Donuts.
The community is, no doubt, here to stay. Whether Tangle Town as a name will stick or fade with time remains to be seen.
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