By MARK HIGGINS
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Beacon Hill has a rich history as one of Seattle's first neighborhoods. It was named by financier M. Harwood Young, who came from Boston and called the hill "Beacon" after one of the oldest residential neighborhoods in his hometown.

Among the first to be attracted by its grand views was Frank Black, a Republican businessman who served as mayor of Seattle -- for just three weeks. Black was pushed into office by reform-minded friends, who wanted to clean up Seattle's bawdy image.

But he quickly resigned in 1896, citing ill health. The real reason, according to pioneer lawyer, historian and author Cornelius Hanford, was that Black felt it would be impossible to impose a new morality on a city starting to itch with Gold Rush fever.

Black went on to build an estate on three acres near 12th Avenue South and South Atlantic Street, overlooking downtown. In about 1913, he offered his wife, Katie, a grand tour of Europe. She declined, asking instead for a Japanese garden.

Some 80 years later, the garden had slipped beneath a sea of blackberry vines and ivy.

Beacon Hill resident Keith Murray remembers rooting around on the site and rediscovering its hidden charms.

"I got in there and found two fish ponds," Murray says. A brick path wound around the ponds and cherry, cedar and elm trees formed a canopy over rhododendrons, quince and forsythia.

Murray helped rally neighbors to save the garden, some of which had been nibbled away by the construction of a nearby apartment building. The Parks Department bought the remaining corner of the garden and is in the process of restoring it -- though more help is needed from the community.