Capitol Hill Spotlight
Capitol Hill Spotlight
One of the city's most popular nightlife and entertainment neighborhoods, Capitol Hill is packed with bookstores to browse before you head to the bars. Stop by Twice Sold Tales to say hi to their in store cats or head to Ada’s for your favorite science titles.Then swing by Elliott Bay Books or Hugo House to catch one of their regular author talks.
Bookstores and Libraries
Ada’s Technical Books and Cafe
Ada's carries science and technical books as well as a selection of cookbooks and science fiction. It also features a vegetarian cafe, coworking space (the Office at Ada’s), and an intimate event venue, The Lab at Ada's.
Elliott Bay Book Company
Located in the heart of Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood, The Elliott Bay Book Company is a full service bookstore, offering one of the region's best selection of new books and an amazing schedule of author readings and events. Elliott Bay featured Seattle’s first bookstore café, and has still has wonderful cafe where you can grab a bite to eat or a glass of wine.
Nook & Cranny Books
Nook & Cranny is a new and used bookstore and community space for the non-reader, the new-reader, the book-gifter, and the bibliophile–the only prerequisite is curiosity. Their mission is to celebrate stories on the printed page and beyond.
Phoenix Comix and Games
Phoenix offers a variety of comics & games, and hosts weekly game nights & other events.
Twice Sold Tales
Home to six live-in bookstore cats, Twice Sold Tales is an eclectic used bookstore with a sprawling inventory of used, collectible and rare titles.
The Seattle Public Library Capitol Hill
Serving Capitol Hill since 1954, the branch was rebuilt and reopened in 2003, It features a reading room with glass walls to the north and south and Iole Alessandrini's "Contour," a green, living wall over the entrance.
General Interest
Hugo House
Hugo House is a writing center that offers classes on a variety of topics across several genres for writers of all ages. They also host several event series with best-selling authors throughout the year.
Landmarks
Lake View Cemetery
Known as "Seattle's Pioneer Cemetery” Lake View Cemetery was founded in 1872 and named after Lake Washington, to its east. Home to the graves of Bruce and Brandon Lee, Lakeview Cemetery is where many other famous Seattlelites have been laid to rest, including Princess Angeline, the daughter of Chief Seattle, Seattle settlers Arthur Denny and Thomas Mercer, and poet Denise Levertov.
People
Horace R. Cayton Sr. (1859-1940) was a prominent Black journalist who published the Seattle Republican newspaper from 1894-1913. His family home on Capitol Hill was designated a city landmark in 2021.
Vi taqᵂšǝblu Hilbert (1918-2008) was an Upper Skagit elder who was a storyteller and dedicated conservationist of Lushootseed culture and language. She was the author of Haboo: Native American Stories from Puget Sound and she co-authored the second Lushootseed dictionary. This ethnobotanical garden is named in her honor.
“All of the time I have spent doing this research to date has been an act of deep respect to my elders and a donation to our Indian youth. It is a cherished legacy to the memory of our ancestors whose hearts would be gladdened to know that the culture of our people is being passed on to generations to come. ”
Denise Levertov (1923-1997) was a prolific poet and recipient of the Lannan Literary Award. She lived in Seattle from 1989 until her death in 1997. She is buried at Lake View Cemetery in Capitol Hill, or you can venture to the Seward Park neighborhood to see the plaque that was dedicated to her at the site of her former home.
“Two girls discover the secret of life
in a sudden line of poetry.”