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History

A ride through time

Twenty moments, from the first people on this land to the light rail. Scroll, and the little train rides the line with you. Every date is checked; the sources are listed on their own page.

Here first, and here now

  1. Long before the city

    The Snohomish people

    The Snohomish people used the uplands that became Lynnwood in summer, to hunt, fish, gather berries and dig roots, and spent their winters in cedar longhouses on the shores of Puget Sound and the Snohomish River.

  2. 22 January 1855

    The Treaty of Point Elliott

    At Muckl-te-oh, now Mukilteo, Snohomish, Snoqualmie, Skykomish and other Puget Sound leaders signed a treaty with Governor Isaac Stevens. They gave up most of their land, and kept their fishing rights and reservations, Tulalip among them.

  3. Today

    The Tulalip Tribes

    The Tulalip Tribes, successors in interest to the Snohomish, Snoqualmie, Skykomish and other allied tribes and bands who signed the treaty, number over 5,000 people. About 2,700 of them live on the 22,000-acre Tulalip Reservation, north of Everett.

    The Hibulb Cultural Center of the Tulalip Tribes, a low building with a sloping roof among tall firs.
    The Tulalip Tribes' Hibulb Cultural Center. Joe Mabel, CC BY-SA 3.0

Forest, stumps and chickens

  1. 1889

    A homestead in the forest

    Scottish stonemason Duncan Hunter filed a claim on 80 acres of forest and became the first settler to stay in what is now Lynnwood.

  2. 1900 to 1920

    The big trees come down

    Most of the land that became Lynnwood was logged, and the forest turned into stump ranches. The biggest landowner was the Puget Mill Company.

    A logging locomotive on a timber bridge, hauling a load of huge logs, about 1913.
    Hauling logs in Snohomish County, about 1913. Lee Pickett, public domain

  3. 1910

    The Interurban arrives

    The electric railway between Seattle and Everett was finished, with stops in the stump country at Alderwood, Intermanor, Manordale and Martha Lake.

    An Interurban car beside a small wooden station, with a cut-over forest of tall stumps behind, in 1910.
    A Seattle-Everett car at Beverly Park station, 1910. Seattle Public Library, public domain

  4. 1917

    Alderwood Manor

    The Puget Mill Company cut its logged land into five- to ten-acre "ranchettes" called Alderwood Manor, and built a demonstration farm to teach newcomers to raise crops and chickens.

    The demonstration farm's white cottage and wooden water tower, about 1925.
    The farm's cottage and water tower, about 1925. Both still stand, in Heritage Park. UW Libraries, public domain

  5. 1919

    The Wickers Building

    Alderwood Manor's first general store and post office opened. It stands today in Heritage Park.

    The Wickers Building today: a half-timbered store with a steep roof, in Heritage Park.
    The Wickers Building in Heritage Park. Cindy Shebley, CC BY 2.0

  6. 1917 to 1922

    200,000 hens

    Alderwood Manor grew from 22 people to 1,463, and 200,000 hens. In the 1920s only Petaluma, California, produced more eggs.

The road, the name, the city

  1. 1927

    Highway 99

    In the fall, the concrete Pacific Highway opened between Seattle and Everett, about a mile west of the Interurban. Businesses grew up where it crossed Alderwood Road, a spot known as the Crossroads.

    The big painted screen of the Sno-King Drive-in Theatre on Highway 99, against a deep blue sky.
    Later on the same road: the Sno-King Drive-in, 1980. John Margolies, Library of Congress, public domain

  2. The 1930s

    A dime a dozen

    In the Great Depression egg prices fell from a dollar a dozen to a dime, and the chicken farms struggled.

  3. 1937

    A name for Lynn

    At the end of the year Seattle realtor Karl O'Beirn platted land along Highway 99 and named it Lynnwood, after his wife, Lynn.

  4. 1939

    The last Interurban

    The Interurban stopped running, as cars and Highway 99 took its riders.

  5. After 1945

    Everyone heads north

    The region boomed. King County alone grew by some 225,000 people in the 1940s, and many of them looked north for a place to live.

  6. April 1959

    The City of Lynnwood

    Lynnwood incorporated as a city, with about 6,000 people on three square miles.

  7. 3 February 1965

    Interstate 5

    The freeway between Everett and Seattle was finished, along the city's eastern edge. The traffic arrived on schedule.

    An aerial view of the new I-5 curving through forest and fresh clearings near Swamp Creek, 1967.
    The new I-5 near Swamp Creek, 1967. Federal Highway Administration, public domain

  8. 1967

    A college

    Edmonds Community College opened in September with 460 students, in an unfinished high school. Today it is Edmonds College, in Lynnwood.

  9. 1979

    A mall on a homestead

    Alderwood Mall opened in September, east of I-5 on the old Morrice homestead.

The line comes back

  1. 2004

    Heritage Park

    The park opened, gathering Alderwood Manor buildings rescued from the 1997 freeway interchange work. Interurban Car No. 55 lives there too.

  2. 30 August 2024

    Light rail

    Trains reached Lynnwood City Center, 85 years after the last Interurban car. In 2026 a second line began running from here to Bellevue and Redmond, and a new station opened at Pinehurst.

    A light-rail train on the elevated guideway at Mountlake Terrace station under a blue sky.
    A train at Mountlake Terrace, one stop south, in 2025. SounderBruce, CC BY-SA 4.0

Every date here is checked against its source. See the sources