Kirkland is a vibrant community with character located on the Northeast shore of Lake Washington. The active downtown houses many restaurants, art galleries, a 400 seat performing arts center; numerous public parks and beaches; and a large collection of public art.  Kirkland also boasts a rather active nightlife in comparison to the rest of the Eastside with a variety of bars and clubs. Lake Washington Boulevard hosts cruisers and joggers. During the summer, locals and visitors alike flock to Kirkland to shop and visit the lakefront and Marina Bay Park. As of April 2005, the city had an estimated population of 45,740, making Kirkland the eighth largest city in King County and the eighteenth largest city in Washington State. Though their corporate offices are now located in Issaquah, Costco began with its headquarters in Kirkland, hence the "Kirkland Signature" store brand. Education Kirkland is home to Lake Washington Technical College and Northwest University Kirkland is in the Lake Washington School District Kirkland is also home to Bungie Studios, the developer of video games such as Halo, Marathon, Myth and Oni. History English settlers arrived around the late 1860s, when the McGregor and Popham families built their homesteads in what is now the Houghton neighborhood. Several prisoners four miles to the north had also settled near what they would later call Juanita Bay. By the end of the 1880s a small number of logging, farming and boat-building communities had been established. The Curtis' arrived to the area sometime in the 1870s and, in 1872, the French family. The Forbes family settled on Rose Hill in 1877.In 1886 Peter Kirk, a British-born enterprising businessman seeking to expand the family's Moss Bay steel production company, moved to Washington state after hearing that iron deposits had been discovered in the Cascades. Other necessary components were also available in the area such as limestone, needed in steel smelting,and coal as a fuel source from a small number of coal mines available from nearby Issaquah and Newcastle. Train lines were already under construction and plans were also underway to build the Lake Washington Ship Canal.Kirk realized that if a town were built near the water it would be a virtual freshwater port to the sea, as well as help support any prospective mill. At the time, however, Kirk was not a U.S. citizen and could not purchase any land. Fortunately, Leigh S.J. Hunt, then owner of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, offered to partner with Kirk and buy the necessary real estate.Under their new venture, the Kirkland Land and Development Company, in July of 1888 Kirk and Hunt purchased thousands of acres of land in what is now Kirkland’s downtown. Kirk and his associates started the construction on a new steel mill soon after, named Moss Bay Iron and Steel Works. Thus founding the city of Kirkland in 1888. Kirk's vision of a "Pittsburgh of the West" was beginning to take form.Through financial issues and numerous obstacles, the steel mill was eventually completed in late 1892 on Rose Hill. Unfortunately before it would ever produce any steel, financial issues arose due to the Panic of 1893.  By 1917, after the completion of the Lake Washington Ship Canal, the construction of ocean-going vessels had become a major Kirkland business. The thriving Lake Washington Shipyard had constructed more than 25 warships during World War II for the U.S. Navy, on what is now Carillon Point.
There was a ferry-construction business on Lake Washington near Kirkland. The Leschi was the original wooden ferry to transport automobiles and people between the Eastside and Madison Park in Seattle until her retirement 1950. The construction of the first Lake Washington floating bridge in 1940 eventually led to its cancellation. Some Information courtesy of wikipedia.org Ferry Picture Courtesy of:
Washington State Ferries
Joshua Green Foundation |