4. HISTORICAL CONTEXT

This area is the ancestral land of the Coast Salish peoples, the Duwamish, Muckleshoot, Puyallup, Skykomish, Snoqualmie, Snohomish, Suquamish and Tulalip tribes and other tribes of the Puget Sound Salish people. The 1855 Treaty of Point Elliot resulted in much of King County being ceded in exchange for reservations, rights, and other commitments that were largely not kept.

Early European settlers arrived in Kirkland in the 1870’s and farming, roads, ferries, and industry reshaped the landscape. In 1890, the land surrounding Forbes Lake was cleared to make way for a steel mill, complete with foundry, bunkers, cooling ponds and railroad. Its sole purpose was to build rail for the world’s railways. Then, in 1891, the newly elected Congress repealed funding for the Lake Washington Ship Canal and the opening of the mill was halted. Attempts were made over the years to open the mill but by 1908, the plans for the mill were abandoned. Much of the mill had already been salvaged for materials to use in other construction projects. With the railroad no longer needed, the rails were torn out and the original rail bed became what is now Slater Avenue. The first oiled road in King County was the 13 miles of blacktop that ran through the Subarea, connecting Redmond to Kirkland and ending at Kirkland’s ferry dock. These connections allowed residents to commute to Seattle for work and goods to move across the region.

The idea for a bypass road to serve the growing population on the Eastside of Lake Washington started with the construction of Interstate 90 in 1940 when the engineers put in a two-lane overpass at I-90, where future I-405 would be built. The overpass sat unused for 14 years until construction of the freeway began in the 1950s. In the initial plans, the only access points to present-day Kirkland from I-405 were those at Houghton (NE 68th Street) and Juanita/Totem Lake (NE 124th Street). Due to complaints from the community regarding the limited connections, the Central Way (NE 85th Street) interchange was added to the project.

The construction of the freeway and NE 85th Street interchange provided important regional connections for residents and workers to access regional destinations by car. In turn, the Subarea grew into an important economic engine of the City, with car dealerships and large retailers contributing employment opportunities and sales tax to a vibrant economy. However, the growth of the I-405 and NE 85th Street corridors also geographically divided the Subarea into quadrants that rendered access by pedestrians and bicycles challenging.

The opportunity created by the Station Area Plan is for the community to re-envision what the Subarea can be with restored connections across these quadrants and enhanced local and regional mobility for buses, cars, pedestrians, bikes, and other rolling transportation.