Founded in 1872 atop Capitol Hill as the Seattle Masonic Cemetery, this 40-acre burying ground holds Bruce and Brandon Lee, Princess Angeline, the Denny family, and many of Seattle's pioneers.
1554 15th Avenue East, Seattle, WA 98112
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free public access during posted hours.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Paved drives wind through rolling Capitol Hill terrain; some hilly sections; grass between grave rows.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1872 · Founded 1872 as the Seattle Masonic Cemetery · Final resting place of the Denny party, Doc Maynard, Henry Yesler, and Thomas Mercer · Grave of Princess Angeline, daughter of Chief Si'ahl · Bruce Lee (1973) and Brandon Lee (1993) graves · Approximately 40,000 burials on 40 acres
Lake View Cemetery was established in 1872 by Seattle's Masonic order as a replacement for the city's first cemetery, which had stood downtown near 2nd Avenue and Stewart Street since 1853 but was closed and disinterred starting in 1860 as Seattle expanded north. The new site on a Capitol Hill ridge — overlooking Lake Washington to the east, which gave the cemetery its eventual name — provided room for growth and was operated by the Lake View Cemetery Association, an independent nonprofit that continues to manage the grounds today.
The cemetery's burials include nearly every name in early Seattle history: founding Denny party member Arthur A. Denny; territorial physician and city co-founder David Swinson 'Doc' Maynard; lumber baron Henry Yesler, often called Seattle's first millionaire; and Thomas Mercer, the pioneer who advocated for the naming of Lake Union and Lake Washington. Princess Angeline (Kikisoblu) — daughter of Chief Si'ahl (Seattle) of the Duwamish and Suquamish, for whom the city is named — was buried at Lake View in 1896 in a casket donated by Seattle businessmen who held her in high regard. Her grave remains a prominent visitor site.
The cemetery's most-visited graves today are those of martial-artist and actor Bruce Lee, buried at Lake View following his death in 1973 at age 32, and his son Brandon Lee, buried beside him following his death in 1993 at age 28. The matched graves draw thousands of visitors annually, and the bench placed between them has become a place of quiet reflection for fans worldwide.
Lake View is privately owned and continues to operate as an active cemetery with ongoing burials and services. The 40-acre footprint is bordered by Volunteer Park to the south and 15th Avenue East to the west. Visitors are welcomed during posted hours, and the Lake View Cemetery Association requests that visitors respect ongoing services and the families of recent burials.
Sources
Lake View's paranormal lore is comparatively quiet for a cemetery of its age and prominence — likely because it is an actively maintained, well-traveled site rather than a romantically neglected one. What lore exists clusters around two areas of the grounds.
The first is the matched graves of Bruce and Brandon Lee. Paranormal-enthusiast websites and Seattle ghost-tour operators describe occasional reports of an apparition near the bench between the two graves. The reports are anonymous and uncorroborated, and HauntBound treats them as folkloric. What is more reliably documented in regional press is the deep emotional response many visitors have at the site — long pauses, written notes left at the bench, fans traveling from overseas — which some attribute to a 'felt presence' that more sober observers describe simply as the weight of the place.
The second cluster of reports concerns Princess Angeline's gravesite. Local lore describes occasional apparitions of an elderly Indigenous woman near her grave, sometimes seen by visitors who do not initially realize whose grave they are near. As with the Lee accounts, no major paranormal-television investigation has documented this; HauntBound presents it as part of the local oral tradition. Out of respect for the Duwamish Tribe — Princess Angeline's living descendants — HauntBound declines to frame her lore in 'ancient curse' or 'restless spirit' terms. She was a real woman, the daughter of Chief Si'ahl, who lived a documented life of resistance and dignity in 19th-century Seattle, and the reverence many visitors feel at her grave reflects that documented life.
Reported phenomena are otherwise standard cemetery accounts: occasional cold spots, orb photographs, and a sense of being watched along the eastern edge of the grounds.
Notable Entities
Walk the rolling 40-acre grounds to pay respects at the Bruce and Brandon Lee graves, Princess Angeline's grave, and the resting places of Henry Yesler, Arthur Denny, Doc Maynard, and Thomas Mercer.
Several Seattle history walking-tour operators include Lake View on Capitol Hill itineraries; check current schedules with operators such as Seattle Walking Tours or Seattle Terrors.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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