Contains news of a general nature about the site.
In the February 2020 issue of Kirkland Lifestyle magazine I told the story of lake transportation before the floating bridges. Writing in 1934, R. H. Collins, Kirkland’s first mayor, said of the early days, “Separated from Seattle as we are by Lake Washington, transportation has always been a vital problem in the development of this […]
Our Lake Washington Belt Line feature lifts up the history of the many businesses served by the railroad in Kirkland beginning in 1905. A few have a special place in Kirkland history and in the hearts of long-time residents — and one of those is surely Seattle Door Co., aka SeDorCo. We are very grateful […]
Thanks to the talents of Ryan Zimbelman, the Piccadilly area page of the Lake Washington Belt Line feature now has an animated map that shows the evolution of side tracks over the life of the line. We hope this helps you visualize the changes over time and the relationships between the various tracks.
On the one hand, SC&T has very little to do with Kirkland history, and this post is simply a shameless plug for “Seattle’s First Railroad”, a multi-year research project in which Matt and I are involved. Part of what has made this project so compelling is the people who are on the team with us: […]
In the September 2019 issue of Kirkland Lifestyle magazine I told the story of Bob and Betty Lightfeldt, who were perhaps Kirkland’s most entrepreneurial couple during the 1960’s and ’70s. The Lightfeldts owned several buildings in downtown Kirkland and in Juanita and created many well-known retails stores, including Betty’s Pants and Tops, Kid’s Stuff, PX […]
I had a lot of fun writing The Possibilities Are Endless for the May 2019 issue of Kirkland Lifestyle magazine. This article recounted why and how Kirkland came to be in the late 1880s. Can you imagine if Kirkland had actually become the “Pittsburgh of the Pacific” with a steel mill puffing away at the […]
While our feature on the Lake Washington Belt Line (LWBL) stops at the point when railroad service ceased, time (and history) march on. The City of Kirkland is documenting the development of the Cross-Kirkland Corridor (CKC) and, nicely, included a link to this site and our LWBL content. Matt and I are working with the […]
Kent helped me resurrect another one of the articles I wrote for the sadly-defunct Kirkland Views blog. Check out the story of the M. V. Kehloken to learn more about its ties to Kirkland history. Enjoy!
Rob Ketcherside recently published a useful listing of changes to downtown Kirkland street names during the early years. A key resource in this project was a 1926 Sanborn Fire Insurance map. On the topic of Sanborn maps, Historical Information Gatherers offers beautiful reproductions of them, in both printed and digital form. HIG provided color Sanborn […]
In the April 2019 issue of Kirkland Lifestyle magazine I recounted the heartbreaking story of the Clark family, which was decimated by diphtheria in 1882. The toughness of families who lived in frontier Kirkland is legendary but thankfully not usually as tragic as what befell Martin and Eliza. Kirkland Homesteader Fought to Save Her Children […]