"White Center had the reputation of being just outside the boundary of the civilized world." White Center poet, Richard Hugo (1923-1982)
White Center, a 2.5 square-mile community in Seattle's tightly packed southside, is proof that not every fight (or competition for that matter) has to be settled with a fight. In 1918, two eager investors made a coin toss that would ultimately decide a part of Seattle's future. George White and his pal Hiram Green agreed to toss for the right to name the small growing neighborhood. During a time when a trolley car route defined the success of an outlying neighborhood, being able to claim the namesake of a new community was an important stamp of notoriety for a real estate developer. But being gentlemen and wise investors, White and Green kept to civil discourse and flipped for the choice. George White won the coin toss and ceremoniously named the semi-rural area White Center. He also managed to route the Seattle trolley past its doors, which effectively put White Center on the proverbial real estate map.
Housing ranges from single detached homes to apartments, some of which are within walking distance of the commercial center
