Still Growing: Boulevard Park Place Celebrates 30 Years in Burien

Thirty years ago, one family set out to create the kind of place they wanted for their own parents.

Last week, approximately 100 residents and guests gathered to celebrate what that idea has become.

Boulevard Park Place marked its 30th anniversary with an afternoon of food, ice cream, music, laughter and a ribbon-cutting on its wooded 12-acre property in north Burien. The sun shone as residents, staff, family members and community leaders gathered outside.

Burien Mayor Sarah Moore attended, along with representatives the Seattle Southside Chamber of Commerce and Discover Burien. There was even a celebratory cake shaped like the Boulevard Park Place buildings.

But the afternoon was about much more than cutting a ribbon.

A family idea takes root

Merle and Vi Steinman opened Boulevard Park Place in 1996 after recognizing a need close to home. Their own parents wanted to remain independent without the work of maintaining a house and yard.

So the Steinmans built the kind of community their parents needed.

Three decades later, Boulevard Park Place remains family-owned, with their son Ron and his wife, Paula, continuing the family’s involvement.

This family connection is something longtime residents remember firsthand.

For example, Sandy has lived at Boulevard Park Place for 16 years and also helps drive fellow residents to appointments and activities.

“It’s a great place to live,” she said, remembering Vi Steinman especially fondly. “I wish Vi were still alive. She was a mama, and she was a character.”

Vi did not live full-time at Boulevard Park Place, but she was a familiar presence and kept an apartment there. She regularly traveled from her home in Edmonds and could often be found tending the gardens, making her rounds in an old, well-used golf cart with her gardening tools piled in the back.

Sandy remembers that winter was particularly hard for Vi. There simply wasn’t enough gardening to do!

Ron continues that family presence today, regularly visiting Boulevard Park Place and staying connected with residents and staff.

A community that stays busy

Boulevard Park Place is an independent-living community for adults 55 and older. Its three residential buildings sit among gardens, walking paths and koi ponds, with an indoor pool and spa, fitness center, libraries, craft and woodworking spaces, raised garden beds and gathering areas.

But the anniversary celebration offered perhaps a better glimpse into what has kept the community going for three decades.

Residents took the microphone for a good-natured musical roast of the people who help make daily life there work, from management and activity staff to the drivers and maintenance crew.

The jokes were personal, the teasing affectionate and the laughter plentiful.

Some of those relationships have been years in the making.

Still connected to the community

The anniversary isn’t the last celebration on the calendar. Boulevard Park Place will host its Fall Bazaar Fundraiser for Charity on Nov. 6, an event that welcomes the broader community. Residents are already preparing, including handmade quilts that will be raffled as part of the festivities.

Thirty years after Merle and Vi Steinman created a place they hoped would serve families like their own, Boulevard Park Place is still doing what they envisioned: giving older adults a place to live independently, stay active, and build community.

And for one sunny afternoon in Burien, there was plenty to celebrate.

Editor’s Note: Boulevard Park Place is a sponsor of The Highline Journal. Sponsorship does not determine or influence editorial coverage.