Images of America

Only 17 miles northeast of Seattle, Redmond is nestled among fir trees, with the majestic backdrop of the Cascade Mountains to the east and the Olympic Mountains to the west. In 1870, when the first official census of Seattle listed 1,107 people, Luke McRedmond obtained a land patent in the area later to be named for him. From the auspicious beginnings of lumber, fishing, and hunting industries sprang a thriving town which was destined to gain international recognition as the home of Microsoft.

With photographs collected from the relatives of its founding families, this volume focuses on the history of Redmond from 1870 to the 1920s. Included are many unpublished photos of the pioneer families, as well as rare glimpses of the railway station, early farms and schools, and historic shots of the Redmond Fire Department. Pictured social occasions include the earliest 4th of July celebrations, birthday parties, and Redmond's famous Derby Days, the country's oldest annual bicycle race, begun in 1939.

Sa'quad, meaning "spear it," is one of the names used by the Suquamish tribe to refer to the Clear Creek camping ground, the estuary, and all of Dyes Inlet. In the 1850s, William Littlewood was the first settler in the Clear Creek area. The town site was platted in 1889, adopting the name Silverdale a year later. The principal industry was logging, which evolved into chicken ranching and farming, aided by the first in a series of cooperative stores. The fastest mode of transportation at that time was the steamboats of the Mosquito Fleet. W.T. Gaffner built the first store, including a post office. Record-setting shipments of poultry and eggs caused the local newspaper editor to report: "From Silverdale the cackle of hens was heard round the world." Silverdale organized the first fire department in the county and within 50 years became the shopping center of the peninsula.

When civic benefactor Clinton P. Ferry donated a graceful, elliptically shaped plot of land in 1883 for the first park in Tacoma, he hoped his adopted hometown would do him proud and become a veritable city of parks. The young community did not disappoint. Landmarks such as Wright Park, Lincoln Park, and Point Defiance Park graced the landscape by 1900, a testament to Tacoma's appreciation for beauty, conservation, and recreation, which continues to this day. In 1907, residents voted to establish the Metropolitan Park District of Tacoma, Washington's first independent parks municipality, to act as steward of these civic treasures. A century later, Metro Parks Tacoma embraces some 57 parks covering 2,700 acres, as well as swimming pools, sports complexes, community centers, and recreational programs for all ages.

Once rolling countryside and bucolic dairy farmland, the area that became Multnomah Village was transformed when the Oregon Electric railroad line connecting Portland to Salem placed a station here in 1908 and brought Multnomah within 15 minutes of Portland's downtown core. The electric train opened the way for individual families to build the charming homes of their dreams. Over the next 20 years, as the rise of the automobile transformed transportation options, the village continued to grow and thrive, with its own post office, grocery stores, pharmacy, movie house, churches, school, and bank to meet the needs of those living nearby. The subsequent rise of shopping centers and large retail grocery chains led to a change in the character of the village, which was annexed piecemeal by the city of Portland beginning around 1950. The former village center is now an eclectic yet dynamic mix of shops, restaurants, and galleries tucked into the storefronts of a generation ago. The "bones" of the village as it was in the past remain visible.

The origins of Wright Park date to 1886, when the Tacoma Land Company--the real estate agency of the Northern Pacific Railway--donated 27 acres of land to the newly incorporated and booming young railroad town of Tacoma on the condition that it become a city park. A hilly, logged, and brambly parcel of land, the acreage was nonetheless enthusiastically received by citizens of Tacoma. Named in honor of Charles Barstow Wright, the president of the Tacoma Land Company, Wright Park and its surrounding streets and avenues soon became the early address of distinction for Tacoma's grand residences as well as many educational, religious, and medical institutions. Now, more than a century later, Tacoma's landmark Wright Park is the recipient of renewed citizen investment and appreciation, as this photographic retrospective demonstrates.