Burien

History

European settlement in the Burien area dates to 1864, when George Ouellet (1831–1899), a French-Canadian born in Sainte-Marie-de-Beauce, Quebec, purchased his first of several land patents for homestead sites directly from a federal land office. Ouellet had first arrived in the Washington Territory at Port Madison on Bainbridge Island, off the Kitsap Peninsula, in 1858. Three years after purchasing his homestead in the Burien area, he married 14-year-old Elizabeth Cushner, who was born in the Washington Territory, and started a family. Several years later, the Ouellet family moved to the White River Valley, near Auburn. A popular local tale recounts that an early settler named Mike Kelly gave the community its first name after he emerged from the trees and said, "This is truly a sunny dale." Today, a few long-time residents still refer to the Burien area as Sunnydale. In 1884, Gottlieb Burian (1837–1902) and his wife Emma (Wurm) Burian (1840–1905), German immigrants from Hussinetz, Lower Silesia, who owned two taverns in downtown Seattle, arrived in Sunnydale. After the annexation vote, a special census was conducted, and it was determined that the newly annexed area had 14,292 residents. This resulted in a new population total of 52,066, making Burien the 25th largest city in Washington State. The Boundary Review Board approved a second proposal for Burien to annex northern North Highline (also known as Area Y) in February 2012, In 2017, the Town Square development in downtown Burien was completed. It includes retail space, condominiums, rental apartments, a senior living center, and a King County Library branch with underground parking. City Hall is located on the top floor of the library building. Town Square Park is at the center of the square and features a…

Geography

Burien is located in western King County and is bordered to the north by the city of Seattle and the unincorporated communities of White Center and Boulevard Park, to the east by the cities of Tukwila and SeaTac, to the south by the city of Normandy Park, and to the west by Puget Sound. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and is water. Lake Burien, a state-owned water body, is located within the city. It has been the subject of contentious debate due to it being surrounded by private property with no public access. "Olde Burien" is a name for the area surrounding SW 152nd Street on the west side of Ambaum Boulevard.

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• American Crow

  Corvus brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822 · Aves
  63,078
• Song Sparrow

  Melospiza melodia (A.Wilson, 1810) · Aves
  50,137
• Dark-eyed Junco

  Junco hyemalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  48,866
• Black-capped Chickadee

  Poecile atricapillus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  44,600
• American Robin

  Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  43,085
• Spotted Towhee

  Pipilo maculatus Swainson, 1827 · Aves
  35,714
• Anna's Hummingbird

  Calypte anna (R.Lesson, 1829) · Aves
  35,054
• Northern Flicker

  Colaptes auratus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  34,420

Most recent

• M 2.64 — 2026-10-15
  5 km SW of Wilderness Rim, Washington
• M 2.65 — 2026-10-14
  5 km WSW of Wilderness Rim, Washington
• M 4.15 — 2026-09-29
  6 km WNW of Wauna, Washington
• M 2.51 — 2026-08-09
  11 km SSW of River Road, Washington
• M 3.8 — 2026-07-02
  2 km E of Oak Harbor, Washington
• M 2.5 — 2026-06-26
  11 km E of Carnation, Washington