
Puget Mill Company buys timberland at the future site of Kenmore
The San Francisco-based Puget Mill Company, a lumber manufacturer, purchases 108 acres of timberland at the north end of Lake Washington that would later become the city of Kenmore. Over the next six years, Puget Mill purchases more than 1,100 acres in the area for $1.25 per acre. The company proceeds to log off its tracts including old-growth trees 400-500 years old, some over eight feet in diameter and 200 feet tall. (After World War I, Puget Mill sells stump land to early Kenmore settlers for home sites.)
Remington, typewriter mogul purchases property in Kenmore
Philo Remington, whose family made rifles and typewriters, purchases 198.5 acres of timberland including waterfront property at the future site of Kenmore for $248.12.
Watson Squire purchases acreage in what is now central Kenmore
Watson Squire, a future territorial governor and U.S. senator, purchases 198 acres sight-unseen from his father-in-law, Philo Remington, in what is now central Kenmore. Squire actively seeks to promote commerce and economic development at the north end of the lake, but his efforts are hampered by the national economic downturn of 1893-96.
Railroad tracks completed
Seattle, Lake Shore & Eastern Railroad tracks completed from Seattle to Bothell along Lake Washington; in subsequent years, the line is extended to Woodinville, Redmond, Preston, Snoqualmie, and North Bend as the railroad becomes a major regional line serving logging areas.
Watson C. Squire plats Northlake Terrace
The first real estate deal
Shirl Squire, son of Watson Squire, plats Northlake Terrace—likely Kenmore’s first real-estate development—encompassing much of the property in central Kenmore owned by his father on the north side of what is now Bothell Way. (Northlake Terrace remains largely undeveloped until the early 1950s.)
Brick road from Lake Forest Park through Kenmore to Bothell is completed
Italian and Greek immigrants complete work on the Brick Road from Lake Forest Park to Kenmore and Bothell, following the route of a wagon road first used in the late 1880s. The Brick Road adds a hard surface and all-weather reliability to the route, bringing with it an economic boon to the area as automobiles replace horse-and-buggy travel. For the first time, Seattle families with automobiles can make a day trip to Bothell on the weekend. Cafes and roadhouses open in Kenmore. Casey Bannister becomes driver for the Bothell Auto Stage
Opening of Lake Washington Ship Canal and Chittenden Locks
Lake Washington Ship Canal and Chittenden Locks open after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers lowers the level of Lake Washington by nearly nine feet. The Sammamish River becomes a slough and effectively no longer serves as a commercial waterway. However, the lowering of the lake creates some thirty feet to the Kenmore shoreline, where businesses devoted to lakeside leisure-time activities began to appear.
First bridge across the Sammamish Slough at Kenmore at 68th Avenue is built
Kenmore Community Club is organized
Kenmore Community Club organizes to work together on needs of the community, estimated to number about 150 people. Objectives the first year are improved fire protection, widening of the highway, better phone service, and establishment of a polling precinct.
McMaster shingle mill burns
John McMaster dies at age 82.
Two-lane bridge crossing Sammamish River on 68th Avenue replaces 1917 wooden span
Bob Munro establishes Kenmore Air Harbor in a former swamp beside the lake
Soon after their return from World War II, aviation mechanics Bob Munro and Reg Collins and pilot Jack Mines establish Kenmore Air Harbor on 2.5 acres of a former swamp next to Lake Washington. Munroe builds a 36-horsepower airplane from the parts of wrecked planes and Kenmore Air is in business. Kenmore Air Harbor becomes the largest seaplane base in the United States.
Ralph Swanson Sr. opens Plywood Supply Company in Lake City Way
Established by Ralph Swanson in Lake City with a single truck and a small shed, Plywood Supply moves three years later to Kenmore, where it operates with a fleet of trucks and six warehouses, where it becomes one of the city’s largest enterprises.
Kenmore voters defeat an incorporation proposal
A parallel bridge opens across Sammamish Slough on 68th Avenue, widening traffic to four lanes
Alyeska Pipeline Service Company begins barging construction materials to Alaska by way of the Kenmore waterfront for the Trans-Alaska Pipeline
New park opens
Saint Edward State Park opens on 316 acres of land surrounding the St. Edward Seminary, lakeside property sold to the state by the Catholic Archdiocese.
Bike trail opens
Burke-Gilman Trail opens after Burlington Northern (a conglomerate of railroads that survived the Seattle, Lake Shore & Eastern Railroad) abandons its rail bed on the west side of Lake Washington.