Rising 456 feet above Elliott Bay, Queen Anne Hill sits directly north of Seattle’s downtown core and is home to more than 36,000 people and a tight sense of community.

Known for its large homes, big views and easy acccess to downtown, Queen Anne was named for an architectural style of home popular in the late 1800s, featuring ornate wood construction and fanciful shingles on the exterior. The area remains one of the most vibrant and fastest-growing neighborhoods in the city.

Uptown Queen Anne, the flat area below the south slope, is home to numerous bars and restaurants and the Seattle Center campus and is Seattle’s cultural nexus for opera, theater and ballet.

Upper Queen Anne is focused on the retail district along Queen Anne Avenue North, with charming tributaries down West McGraw, West Boston, and West Galer streets. It is good to report that Queen Anne Books, a great neighborhood bookstore on the bubble, has found a new owner.

Queen Anne is changing. It’s a bustling urban village shaped by its topography and history. While many of the pocket neighborhoods include the famed restored vintage houses built between 1900 and 1930, the area also offers smaller homes and apartment complexes and a succession of new condo developments.

The more densely populated south slope is known for its breathtaking views that bring tourists and locals, alike, to gaze down at Seattle, the Space Needle and the waterfront.

The neighborhood also is home to numerous parks, public and private schools, Seattle Pacific University, Queen Anne Avenue and the Counterbalance, one of the steepest thoroughfares to be found anywhere in this hilly city.