Transcripted from Stan Denton’s father Harry’s hand written pages. Part of the Stan Denton collection January 2009.
The reliable fairy of Lincoln was the principal transportation to Seattle from the foot of Kirkland Ave. it made a round-trip every hour in the morning and evening. On a Sunday cars would be lined up as far back as greens funeral home waiting to ride on the ferry.
The bank in Kirkland was the only one outside of Redmond on the east side. It was owned by Glen Johnson and Hugh Lambert was the cashier. Mr. Lambert had in Maxwell touring car and twice a week he drove to Midlakes Bellevue and Medina to pick up their deposits and take care of other banking business.
In Kirkland Ed Williams had a grocery store where Halverson drugstores now. Ed Blau and Mike Chapman had a garage where the associated station stands today. Jimmie Robinson was the Ford dealer then. His garage was in an old livery barn west of where the Glencoe gas station is now. Ollis Patty was Jimmie’s right-hand man. Jack ferry had a drugstore where Coleman’s is now. Manly sessions at a grocery store which was later owned by Claude Elwood. There was a bridge across the stream that was in front of where the Ben Franklin store is now located. And Mr. Brooks was the Pioneer grocery man in Kirkland. His store was on market St. it is now Oban’s hatchery. In 1919 a grocerteria operated by a Mr. Bean and his wife opened up at seventh and market Street. It was quite a novel way then to sell groceries. The building has been remodeled and is now the Art Center.
Bellevue’s business district at that time consisted of Tom Daugtherty’s grocery store, Charlie LeWarren’s hardware with the post office, and Hanson brothers had a garage in an old barn on Main Street. It was a grocery store at Medina. At Midlakes the Godseys had a grocery store and feed store. Also a Mr. Walters had a grocery store and feeds. There was a grocery store at Wilburton run by Grover Naslund.
There was a grocery store at Houghton operated by a Mr.Dowd and the Houghton post office was in the store. They started building wooden ships at the Lake Washington ship yard during the first war. It was a small plant then what they build a lot of ships.
There was a grocery store at Juanita owned and operated by Harry Langdon, who came there with his parents when he was seven years old. They moved over from Madison Park via a scow.
The road between Kirkland Redmond was the only black top on the east side. There was a brick highway from Wayne Junction to Lake Forest Park; from Lake Forest Park to Seattle it was a narrow two-lane blacktop. The speed limit was 30 mph
I was working for the standard oil Company out of Seattle driving a five-ton Packard chain drive a tank truck with solid tires. In the winter time we had a hard time getting through. I remember one afternoon I left Kirkland about 4 p.m. and got into Bothell at midnight. There had been a freeze and after a freeze the roads would soften up in the heavy trucks would sink down. We carried planks on top so we could make our own roads. There was no other way to get out as there were no wreckers in those days. The road to Bellevue was a narrow one so I sometimes would drive around by Medina.
The standard oil Company constructed a distributing station at Houghton and opened it up in September 1917. Max Mitchell and myself were sent from Seattle to operate it. I moved my family here at that time.
In the last of October 1917 they started to make a highway along the waterfront. It got so bad we had to go back to horses. They still had several teams in Seattle, so they sent two teams a tank wagon and a freight wagon. We added trips to Woodinville and Bothell with teams for a while.
They started paving the road to Bellevue from Kirkland in 1918, and we sent our horses back to Seattle in the spring and went back to trucks, which was a relief.
Market Street was paved in 1919.
