Montlake is an affluent residential neighborhood in central Seattle. It is bounded to the north by Portage Bay and the Montlake Cut section of the Lake Washington Ship Canal, to the east by the Washington Park Arboretum, and to the south and west by Interlaken Park. Capitol Hill is on its south and west sides, and the University of Washington lies across the Montlake Cut to the north. State Route 520 runs through the northern tip of Montlake, isolating four blocks from the rest of the neighborhood. Though sports at the University of Washington are often referred to metonymically as "Montlake," UW sports facilities are not located within the traditional bounds of the neighborhood (but are located on Montlake Boulevard N.E., across the Montlake Cut from the neighborhood).[1]

The neighborhood's main thoroughfares are Boyer Avenue E. (northwest- and southeast-bound), 24th Avenue E. and Lake Washington and Montlake Boulevards E. (north- and southbound), and E. Lake Washington Boulevard (east- and westbound).

Seattle (pronounced /siːˈætɫ̩/ ( listen) see-AT-əl or /siːˈæɾɫ̩/) is the county seat of King County, in the U.S. state of Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country. The city is a major coastal seaport situated on a narrow isthmus between Puget Sound (an arm of the Pacific Ocean) and Lake Washington, about 114 miles (183 km) south of the Canada–United States border. In 2010, Seattle was the sixth busiest port in the United States, serving as a major gateway for trade with Asia.

The Seattle area had been inhabited by Native Americans for at least 4,000 years before the first permanent white settlers.Arthur A. Denny and his group of travelers, subsequently known as the Denny Party, arrived at Alki Point on November 13, 1851. The settlement was moved to its current site and renamed "Seattle" in 1853, after Chief Seattle of the local Duwamish and Suquamish tribes.