Ten of the most valuable acres in Seattle, located in the heart of the business district, are managed by the Board of Regents of the University of Washington. In 1861, when the land was given as a gift by Arthur Denny and other city pioneers to be the site of a territorial university, it was a forested knoll overlooking a village settlement on Elliott Bay. The tract has no counterpart as a real estate "endowment' of a state universtiy leased for hotel and office buildings, held as a leasehold under policies established by the university's regentws, and occupying a site at the commercial center of a major city. No other Seqattle property has had such a continuity of identity and public attention or has been so important in the shaping of the city.

This book is a narrative that intervweaves three histories - of the land, of the city, and of the univerwsity itself. Te author has comiled a detailed but highly readable account of how decisions were made and policies established, and he gives appropriate attention to th eregents, university administrators, political leaders, alumni, businessmen, preservationists, and others who have been part of the history from the ealrliest days of the century to the end of the 1970's.

In addition to oproviding a record of the regents' efforts to determine the best use of the land dedicated to the support of an educational institution, Hines also presents a fascinating case history of the commercial use of an important piece of property in a growing metropolitan area.