For centuries, Native American tribes lived peacefully along the trout-filled stream in a ravine that would later become part of northeastern Seattle. In 1887, the Reverend Beck disembarked from the Seattle Lake Shore & Eastern Railroad and, in this same area, bought 300 lushly forested acres that he turned into a township and park, both called Ravenna. The town was only three and a half miles from the city center and soon boasted a flour mill and...