Siegfried Semrau was director of the Bellevue Parks Department for 16 year, from 1961 until 1977.

He grew the city of Bellevue’s park acreage from 76 acres to about 760 acres by the time of his retirement. Semrau’s park designs tended to wrk with the existing landscape, and rarely involved bulldozing or altering existing landscape features.

A German immigrant, when he was hired by the city of Bellevue in 1961, city planner Fred Herman, helped him study for his United States citizenship test. Kelsey Creek Park, Chism Beach, Bovee Park, Bellefield Nature Park, Hidden Valley Sports Park, Enatai Park and the Bellevue Municipal Golf Corse are just a few Bellevue Parks projects that Semrau was instrumental in creating.

This information and image were provided by the Eastside Heritage Center. To learn more about Bellevue and Eastside history, contact the Eastside Heritage Center at 425-450-1049 or visit www.EastsideHeritageCenter.org.