David Phillips surveyed the Green Lake area in September 1855 for the United States Surveyor General.

In 1891 a trolley line was extended from Fremont along the eastern shore and around the northern end of Green Lake.

Prior to the 1991 redistricting, Green Lake formed the center of Washington's 32nd Legislative District.

The well-organized and rather left-leaning Democratic Party organization of that district was widely known both to friend and foe alike as "the Soviet of Green Lake", possibly an allusion to James Farley's legendary (though possibly apocryphal) 1930s remark "there are 47 States in the Union, and the Soviet of Washington".

GLSCC is the site of both Green Lake Crew, a public rowing program, and the Seattle Canoe and Kayak Club.