"The Alki Bathhouse sits empty about 90% of the year," Alki Community Council president Charlotte Starck told Westside Seattle in late August. She meant it as a case for change. "We have the spaces, we have the community interest, and we want to see recreational programming return to at least similar levels of other community centers citywide."
Six weeks later the building is busier than it has been in years. There are pottery wheels on Wednesday evenings, a teen clay class that starts today, tap shoes in the pottery room on Tuesday mornings, and a new senior meditation class. Its timing matters. This month Alki's outdoor, visitor-facing season shrinks on a schedule, so the Bathhouse is getting its trial run in the months when a neighborhood needs an indoor room the most.
How Alki lost its indoor gathering place
The Alki Community Center started moving away from full service in 2011. After citywide budget cuts, Seattle Parks and Recreation reclassified it as a "limited-use site" and turned its main operations over to the Seattle Preschool Program and licensed after-school care. Open gym, community skate nights, senior fitness, and indoor basketball were phased out one by one.
Things got worse from there. The center closed completely during the pandemic and reopened only as a childcare site. Then it shut again for the multi-year reconstruction of Alki Elementary next door, which left the neighborhood with no indoor public gathering space at all. As the school neared completion, Parks said the center would reopen for childcare only. The fall 2026 Parks brochure still lists Alki Community Center under the Seattle Preschool Program and school-age care. West Seattle Blog reports that the city has said this isn't expected to change any time soon.
That leaves the Bathhouse on the beach at 2701 Alki Ave SW as the obvious place to try something else.
What the community asked for
In mid-2026 the Alki Community Council surveyed neighbors and compiled the results in a report dated June 22, 2026. Westside Seattle summarized the requests in five groups:
- Health and wellness: yoga, meditation, tai chi
- Arts and creative programs: pottery, painting, music, dance, crafts, performing arts
- Waterfront and environmental learning: marine education, wildlife programs, boating, fishing, beach stewardship
- Youth and family: weekend programming and dedicated spaces for teens
- A gathering place: somewhere to meet neighbors, volunteer, and learn
Starck added that the survey showed "a huge interest in the return of rollerskating, indoor sports like basketball in Fall and Winter, Yoga, Thai Chi, Teen programs and more." Parks representatives have met with local leaders about a "hybrid programming model" that would keep childcare at the community center and add public recreation on evenings and weekends.
Roller skating and indoor basketball haven't come back. The arts and wellness requests are the ones showing up first, and they're showing up at the Bathhouse.
What's on at the Bathhouse this fall
Demand drove the first additions. "Ever since the Alki Bathhouse pottery studio fired up again, it's been popular," West Seattle Blog reported on September 4, when Parks opened two more Wednesday classes.
| Class | Who | When | Dates | Fee |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adult Pottery: All Levels | Ages 18+ | Wednesdays, 5:30 to 8 p.m. | Sept. 16 to Dec. 2 | $440 |
| Alki Youth Pottery | Ages 13 to 17 | Wednesdays, 3:30 to 5 p.m. | Oct. 7 to Dec. 2 | $200 |
Neither class meets on November 11 or November 25. The adult class is open to all experience levels, gives newcomers extra attention, and includes the first bag of clay. The teen class covers wheel throwing, hand building, and glazing.
Those two are only part of the schedule. The Seattle Parks fall 2026 brochure has its own Alki Bathhouse section, which adds handbuilding and wheel-throwing pottery for adults and tap dancing for adults in the Bathhouse pottery room. A beginning tap session runs Tuesdays from 11 a.m. to noon, with a new session starting October 27 for $120.
The newest additions came through the council. Starck told West Seattle Blog that watercolor and mindfulness and meditation classes are now running at the Bathhouse as "a first step" toward restoring recreation. The meditation class is aimed at seniors. Starck welcomed it and said the council is "pushing for more before the rainy days come." To find the watercolor and meditation listings, go to the Seattle Parks site, choose Activities, and filter the location to Alki Bathhouse.
Laid out across a week, it adds up to a building in use Monday through Thursday after a decade of near-silence. That's still a long way from a full community center. But the classes that are filling up are some of the same ones the survey asked for.
Why the timing matters this month
The rainy-day worry is about more than weather. Several of the things that keep Alki busy in summer are being scaled back right now.
The West Seattle Water Taxi just finished its biggest summer in close to a decade. On June 19, during the U.S. vs. Australia World Cup match, it logged 8,552 boardings, breaking a single-day record of 7,721 that had stood since 2018. The late-night Friday and Saturday sailings end Saturday, October 10, when the fall and winter schedule starts. Per King County Metro, that means:
- Weekdays: 17 round trips, last departure from Pier 50 at 6:45 p.m., last boat from West Seattle at 7:05 p.m.
- Saturdays and Sundays: 11 round trips, last departure from Pier 50 at 6:30 p.m., last boat from West Seattle at 7:00 p.m.
The free Route 775 shuttle still connects the Seacrest Park dock with Alki and the Admiral District.
The beach changed too. The 10:30 p.m. summer closing time at Alki Beach Park ran through September 30. Since October 1 the park has been on its remainder-of-year hours of 4 a.m. to 11:30 p.m., which run through April 30. The 2026 fire-pit season ended September 7.
Late summer nights on the sand and the last boat back from downtown are things visitors and residents share. A Wednesday pottery class or a Tuesday morning tap session at the Bathhouse is mostly for the people who live here. That's the kind of use the council argued the building was missing.
The dates that bring neighbors together this fall
The Bathhouse classes fit into a short fall calendar run largely by volunteers:
- Thursday, October 15, 7 p.m.: The next Alki Community Council meeting, with tsunami awareness and political candidates on the agenda. This is also where updates on the recreation push come up.
- Saturday, October 24: Alki Trick-or-Treat, with treats from participating Alki businesses. The times don't match yet. The council's September recap says 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., while the West Seattle Blog event listing says noon to 2 p.m. Check the time closer to the day. The council is looking for volunteers.
- Friday, November 27: The council's Holiday Lights celebration at the beach, set for the night the Christmas Ship comes to Alki. Volunteers are needed for this one too. The Argosy Christmas Ship Festival schedule lists two shoreline stops that night: Salty's at Alki Beach from 5:35 to 5:55 p.m. and Alki Beach from 8:35 to 8:55 p.m. The festival runs November 27 through December 23.
The neighborhood has also shown it will pay for upkeep the city doesn't cover. Cracks in the pedestal of Alki's Statue of Liberty replica fall outside the council's standard maintenance agreement with Seattle Parks, so the council asked neighbors to fund professional repairs. The fundraising page shows $5,209.05 raised against a $5,000 goal. Anything above the repair cost goes into a long-term maintenance fund.
That same council is now asking Parks to staff evenings and weekends at two buildings. Turnout at the Bathhouse this winter, from the teen pottery roster that starts today to the November 27 crowd on the beach, is the clearest evidence the council can bring back to Parks.
If you have questions about what's happening at the Bathhouse or anything else around Alki this season, I'm always glad to talk it through. Savanna Taylor | Real Estate With Sav follows these updates closely, and I'm happy to share what I'm hearing. Let's Connect.
