
Present-day Kenmore and the surrounding areas are home to communities of Coast Salish peoples
The area surrounding present-day Kenmore is the traditional homelands and hunting grounds for people from multiple Coast Salish indigenous groups and sub-groups, including the Duwamish, Tulalip, Sammamish, Snoqualmie, and Suquamish. A village called ƛ’ a x̌w a d i s, (also written Tl’ awh-ah-dees or Tlah-WAH-dees), consisting of multiple cedar longhouses,…
The Elliot Bay Treaty is signed, defining the rights and lands of local indigenous peoples according to the U.S. federal government
The Elliot Bay Treaty was signed between the U.S. federal government and chiefs representing some of the indigenous groups in area surrounding present-day Kenmore, including Chief Seattle who hailed from both the Duwamish and Suquamish tribes Subsequently, some of the affected groups moved to the reservations the treaty had established.…
Indigenous communities are further impacted by epidemics
Contact with early white prospectors and traders spread diseases to the indigenous people in the Puget Sound region. In particular, an epidemic of smallpox that began in Victoria in 1862 resulted in the deaths of many of the indigenous people who remained in the areas surrounding Seattle and Lake Washington.
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…
Euro-Americans establish settlements in Sammamish valley
In the 1850s, prospectors discovered coal in Issaquah. Subsequently, Euro-Americans arrived to mine the region. This activity leads people to explore and eventually settle the nearby Sammamish River valley towards Lake Washington, which ends at present-day Kenmore. The first well-documented white settlers to establish homesteads in the Sammamish River valley…
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…
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.
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.)
Watson C. Squire plats Northlake Terrace
Kenmore was an early transportation hub
Bothell Auto Stage driver Casey Bannister stands beside his Winton motor bus near Swamp Creek. The stage line was founded by Elmer Ross after completion in 1913-14 of a brick road that became Bothell Way. Previously, the land routes were rough trails and dirt roads that often became impassable during…
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…
Early-day public transportation
Kenmore became a more popular destination after red-brick paving replaced the dirt road from north Seattle to Bothell in 1914. In this photo, several of the motorized Bothell Stage Line vehicles make their way on the new road. One can imagine the enjoyment of the “Sunday drive” that was so…
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…
First bridge across the Sammamish Slough at Kenmore at 68th Avenue is built
Kenmore Garage
Beginning in 1922, Al Telquist (right) operated Kenmore’s first auto-repair garage at 65th Avenue NE and Bothell Way with his father-in-law, Dan Dygert. The large sign above the door reads “Kenmore Garage, Shell Gasoline, Day and Night Service.” Auto traffic in the area surged after opening of the brick road…
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.
Sanitarium treated psychiatric cases
A three-story residence on Lakewood Villa Road (later NE 175th Street) became the Lakewood Villa Sanitarium specializing in psychiatry in the 1930s. Later renamed Firlawn, the facility offered private, long-term treatment. The famous American novelist Thomas Wolfe, author of Look Homeward, Angel, was a patient here in 1938. Photo courtesy…
Two-lane bridge crossing Sammamish River on 68th Avenue replaces 1917 wooden span
1942: Kenmore’s Japanese-American families are forced to relocate to internment camps
Thousands of local families were impacted by the federal directives to remove people of Japanese descent from their homes and relocate them to internment camps. National Archives records show that at least one Kenmore-based family was sent to the Tule Lake camp in northern California, along with most of the…
Kenmore’s Japanese-American families are forced to relocate to internment camps
Thousands of local families were impacted by the federal directives to remove people of Japanese descent from their homes and relocate them to internment camps. National Archives records show that at least one Kenmore-based family was sent to the Tule Lake camp in northern California, along with most of the…
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…
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 Drive-In Theater opening
The Kenmore Drive-In Theater opened on May 1, 1953 behind what later became the Kenmore Village shopping center. The theater’s slogan was “See the Stars under the Stars.” The first program was a double-feature starring Gregory Peck and Ann Blyth in The World in His Arms and Joe McCrea appearing…
Kenmore voters defeat an incorporation proposal
A parallel bridge opens across Sammamish Slough on 68th Avenue, widening traffic to four lanes
Prominent Kenmore estate becomes a therapy center for the differently-abled
In their wills, Kenmore residents Charles and ElVera Thomsen donated Wildcliffe, their expansive summer home and blueberry farm, to the Easter Seal Society. From the 1970s until 1997, the Society used the property’s mansion, warm-water swimming pool, and extensive grounds along the Sammamish River as a therapy center for people…
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.
Kenmore Incorporation Committee is formed
Kenmore Heritage Society is established
Kenmore becomes a city
Citizens of Kenmore celebrate the incorporation of their city in August, 1998 with a parade along Northeast 181st Street during the Good Ol’ Days Festival. This small delegation of local residents carried a message from one of the community’s namesakes—Kenmore, Scotland. The new city had a population of nearly 18,000…