By LYNN STEINBERG
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Driving east on Yesler Way, cresting the hill, then heading down toward the lake and to Leschi, one can almost imagine Indians following this path in the 19th century, portaging their canoes between Puget Sound and Lake Washington.

With the arrival of white settlers in the mid 1800s, the route became a road for logging.

The first homes in Leschi were so far removed from Seattle's thriving port and downtown that they were considered country lake cottages. By the 1890s Leschi -- whose namesake was a Nisqually native and farmer who resisted white dominance and was executed -- had become a popular recreation area. A cable line transported passengers from Elliott Bay to Yesler's landing, where they could catch a ferry across Lake Washington to the timber and coal mines on the eastside.

In his book "Seattle Now & Then," writer Paul Dorpat describes Leschi during this time as "a hot spot for romping, mixing and romantic recreation. . . . There was the park and lakefront promenade where the strumming of banjos and small guitars accompanied the informal parade of picnickers in their Sunday best."

Leschi could get crowded, Dorpat wrote: "40,000 were counted for the 1908 Fourth of July celebration. The last returning cable cars often were packed with somewhat tipsy revelers."

A hotel and restaurant stood on the site of the present-day Leschi Lake Cafe, with a large room below street level for dancing. There was a zoo, with sea lions and a panther. And, at the south end of what is now Leschi Park was the Washington Casino where Sarah Bernhardt performed.

That was way before Patricia Frank's time, but it's part of what shaped her community, helped make it what it is today.

And after nearly 64 years here, Frank wouldn't consider living anywhere else.

"I've been here so long," she says with a sigh. "I'm just partial to Leschi."