Back to the Beginning:
Harry
French, who arrived in 1872 at Pleasant Bay (now Yarrow Bay), built a
cabin of shakes and logs across from what is now Bay Shore Apartments,
next to Marsh Park. Two years later he moved to his father’s property
further south (near present-day 63rd Street) and built a nine room home
where he lived until he died in 1937. He gave his cabin to the
community to use as a schoolhouse in 1874.
Prior to the
construction of the Lake Washington Ship Canal and lowering of the
lake, the shoreline was nine feet higher than it is today and the
water’s edge was located in the middle of today’s Lake Washington
Boulevard.
Kirkland Beginnings:
Houghton Post Office opens on June 20, 1881.
Houghton
Post Office is established on June 20, 1881. James Curtis is the first
postmaster. The post office is located seven miles northwest of Seattle
within the future city limits of Kirkland on the east shore of Lake
Washington along the Northern Pacific Railroad line.
The post
office did not operate from December 15, 1905 till January 22, 1906. On
April 15, 1961, it became a branch of the Kirkland Post Office. The
branch closed sometime during 1962-1963.
Kirkland Beginnings:
Kirkland Post Office opens on January 31, 1889.
The
opening of a post office is an important marker of the beginning of a
community. On January 31, 1889, the Kirkland Post Office is
established. John J. Thompkins is the first postmaster. Kirkland is
located on the Eastside (of Lake Washington) just south of Juanita Bay.
Juanita Beach Park
Juanita
Beach Park, located along Juanita Bay in Kirkland, has been a popular
summer destination for most of a century. Originally settled by Dorr
and Eliza Forbes, the park blossomed as a resort in the 1920s under the
guidance of their son Leslie and his wife Alicia. In 1956, they sold
the park to King County. It remained a county park until 2002, when
ownership was transferred to the City of Kirkland.
Dorr and Eliza Forbes
The
Juanita Beach Park property was homesteaded in 1876 by Dorr and Eliza
Forbes, who planned their move west soon after getting married in Iowa
in 1874. After traveling by train with their newborn son Ray to San
Francisco, they headed north and briefly lived in a log cabin near
Hillsborough, Oregon, where they had a second son, Leon. From there,
they continued on to Puget Sound.
Once
in Seattle, Dorr scouted around and eventually decided to move his
family to a small bay on northeast Lake Washington. They hauled all
their belongings onto a boat at McGilvra Landing (later Madison Park)
and traveled from there to their new home, where they would spend the
rest of their lives.
The hills near the bay were heavily
forested, and Dorr set to work clearing his land and building a shingle
mill. At first, their closest neighbor, Martin Hubbard, lived a mile
away and delivered the mail. As more settlers moved nearby, the
community chose the name Hubbard, but later changed it to Juanita. Pioneer Life
Before
others moved to the area, the Forbes family had the bay to themselves.
Once, when Dorr and the boys were out logging, Eliza was surprised when
a group of Indian women opened her front door and walked in. Afraid at
first, Eliza soon realized they were cold and hungry. She fed them and
had them stand next to the fire. Afterwards, they left peacefully.
In
an attempt to upgrade his sawmill, Dorr added a kiln, but the night
after it was installed it burned the mill down. Then he attempted to
grow cranberries and took up a preemptive claim on Forbes Lake (now
Lake Kirkland) a few miles southeast of Juanita. Unfortunately, beavers
kept eating his berries, and he gave that up too. But Dorr was a
jack-of-all-trades, and found work at other mills and on other farms.
Eliza
gave birth to two more sons -- Allen and Leslie -- and also became the
first female Justice of the Peace in King County, and possibly in
Washington state. She began this job in 1887, when Washington was still
a territory, but had to relinquish her duties in 1889 when it became a
state. At that time, women still didn’t have the right to vote.
Eliza,
a staunch Republican, remained active in politics, but mostly lived out
her life as an archetypical pioneer housewife. Even into her 90s she
would fish in the nearby stream, pick nettles and dandelions for
salads, and sit on the porch shooting robins in the cherry trees. Robin
breast, dressed and cooked correctly, was a delicacy.
|
Kirkland waterfront, circa 1909
Courtesy of Eastside Heritage Center
Kirkland business section, circa 1910's
Juanita Beach Park, 1925
Alicia, Dorris, Joyce, and Leslie Forbes, 1927
Bath house Juanita Beach, 1930's
Playground at Shady Beach, Juanita, 1933 |
