Deal will save Waldo Woods in Seattle's Maple Leaf neighborhood

Here's the short of it: The trees will stay.

After three years of community outrage over the potential loss of Waldo Woods, an urban grove of 100-plus trees in Seattle's Maple Leaf neighborhood, a deal went through last week that saves the canopy from the threat of residential development.

According to property records, the site at Northeast 85th Street and 15th Avenue Northeast was sold for $3.45 million to Menachem Mendel Seattle Cheder, a private Jewish school, which plans to keep all the trees intact.

"We fell in love with the property at first sight," said Rabbi Yossi Charytan, head of the school. "The nature and the surroundings were very conducive to a school environment. We're going to let (the trees) be."

Waldo Woods was once the grounds of the region's first osteopathic hospital, opened in 1924 by Dr. William Waldo. About six years after Waldo's death in 1962, Camp Fire USA of Central Puget Sound bought the property and used the former hospital as its headquarters.

Three years ago, Camp Fire USA was in talks with Prescott Development, which wanted to buy the site to build townhomes. Neighbors and community leaders were furious that the development would have cut a swath of trees in the 85-year-old forest.

But that deal fell through earlier this year, said Jane White Vulliet, CEO of Camp Fire. "It just wasn't going to happen in the timeline we needed," she said.

Then in May, school officials expressed interest and came to see the property. They "were ready and wanted to move ahead now," White Vulliet said.

"We feel very, very grateful to get the offer in this economy," she said.

The school, which has been around since the early 1970s, operated out of the Chabad Lubavitch House in the University District. Officials had wanted to find another campus for the growing student body, and finally got the combination of loans and donations to make it happen, Charytan said.

They plan to move in between October and December, he added, and plan on relocating to another space in Sand Point in the interim.

The school enrolls 100 students and will hold classes in the existing building, said Tziviah Goldberg, development chair for the school's board.

Officials will spend about $500,000 sprucing up the building and strengthening it to withstand earthquakes, she said. They will also do landscaping, and cut the overgrown grass.

Sonia Krishnan: 206-515-5546 or skrishnan@seattletimes.com. Information from Seattle Times archives is included in this report.