"Denny Triangle" name is total fail (Seattle, Bellevue: real estate, houses)

[Garethe]

Due to homesickness I was perusing Wiki articles on Seattle history and came across the story of the 7 hills and when I clicked onto the Denny Hill article I ran across this baloney about how it is sometimes referred to as "the triangle" which must be new because my connections to the city go all the way back to the early 80s and I never heard of it.

I always thought "Denny Regrade" was a great conversation starter when hosting out of town guests, hinting at an historic and interesting past about the original hill as opposed to something mundane and boring like the triangle which says basically nothing.

I really hate to come off like an uptight Seattleite but how on God's green earth did this get started? Please tell me it was not invented by some real estate vulture that didn't think Regrade was fashionable/hip/fresh enough. "West Edge" is equally bad, this is one I have heard of. That area was always considered the market area, mention hill climb and everybody immediately knew what part of downtown you meant, I'm not sure if I directed somebody to the West Edge if they'd have any inkling as to what edge I was referring to.

[Inkpoe]

It's actually quite rare to hear someone say "Denny Regrade", and usually it would tell me the person is a long time Seattleite. Afaik, they started phasing that out in the early 90s. Honestly, I'd be surprised if a lot of people knew what regrading means, and I notice a lot don't realize that there were much more hills in Seattle before... so in that sense, it would be an easy switch to "Triangle". There's a book somewhere out there that talks about the regrading history and has all these pictures. The pictures of the houses being held up with what looks like crates always stun a lot of people. One example you can sort of see here: HistoryLink.org- the Free Online Encyclopedia of Washington State History (second pix on right under the "hill hater" engineer).

[sean98125]

I use Denny Regrade and Denny Triangle all the time.

[JBVirtuoso]

A name like Denny Regrade can only last so long before everyone forgets there was a hill there.

[skidamarink]

Never heard Denny Regrade, but triangle I have heard. Generally, though, everybody I've spoken to just calls it all downtown or refers to downtown areas by their intersections unless it's Belltown.

[BellevueNative]

Denny Regrade and Denny Triangle are slightly different things, I think. Regrade refers to how the hills were, well, re-graded long ago. Triangle is a specific set of blocks where 5th, 6th Westlake and such form a triangle to intersect Denny.

[David G]

It's an old versus new local speak on names. (Sorry, no offence to those who grew up in-between the two phrases)
But it's becoming less common to refer to the Denny area as the regrade because of the new developments, and an increasing association with the grid layout (thus the term "triangle").

[Ira500]

As Bellevue Native stated, the Denny Regrade and the Denny Triangle are two different places. The Triangle is from about 5th Avenue up to Boren, bounded by Denny Way and Olive Way. I think it's a stupid name, which borders "South lake Union" which also didn't used to be a place. Maybe it was, but nobody lived there. They lived in the Cascade Neighborhood, almost completely destroyed by progress.

[Kayela]

As Bellevue Native stated, the Denny Regrade and the Denny Triangle are two different places. The Triangle is from about 5th Avenue up to Boren, bounded by Denny Way and Olive Way.

This has always been my understanding as well, and people that have referred to them seemed to be on the same page.

[Ira500]

So what's the difference between the Denny Regrade and Belltown? Is one bigger, or are they the same place?