City of Edmonds, Official City Account history

Charles Wilkes (1798-1877) and his United States Exploring Expedition entered the Strait of Juan de Fuca to undertake the first Euro-American maritime survey of the Puget Sound area since Britain’s George Vancouver (1758-1798) had come a half century earlier.

In 1880 he established the first store and four years later when the settlement acquired a post office, he became postmaster.

By 1884, the area had a post office and an organized school system, and had been platted and officially named.

The Great Northern Railway was created in 1889 by James Jerome Hill, “The Empire Builder,” from several pre-existing railways and eventually stretched from Duluth and Minneapolis/St Paul, west through North Dakota, Montana and Northern Idaho to Washington State.

Edmonds was incorporated in 1890, and the railroad came the next year.

View from schoolhouse, Edmonds, 1895

People also came by steamboat, but it wasn’t until 1900 that regular passenger ferry service came to Edmonds.

The State Bank of Edmonds was created in 1907.

By 1908 the downtown included more than 50 businesses and professional establishments.

Excelsior Shingle Co., Edmonds waterfront, 1914

1918), and in the twenty-first century by Seattle Symphony violinist Michael Miropolsky.

Ferry service began from Edmonds to Victoria in 1935, with the “Olympic” making two round-trips daily.

1941), best recalled as star of the TV series Here Come the Brides; Pulitzer Prize winning photographer Jerry Gay (b. ca.

The last shingle mill closed in 1951, symbolizing the end of an era in Edmonds.

1953 Ray Cloud, who ran the Edmonds Tribune newspaper for many years, wrote a book entitled, “The Gem of Puget Sound.” It was mainly a recap of all the newspaper stories up until 1953.

The first of several local theater outfits was the Driftwood Players which also started in 1957; it later moved to the distinctive Wade James Theater named for the local architect who designed it.

The district’s second high school was opened in the postwar town of Mountlake Terrace in 1960, and others followed.

Cascade Symphony Orchestra, Robert Anderson, Conductor, Edmonds, after 1962

A case was made to the City Council that the old building needed some loving care and that the newly formed historical society was the group to do it. It was in December 1972 that a steering committee met at the Yesteryear Restaurant in Edmonds, now Claire’s Pantry.

One widely publicized effort to build a structure directly on the waterfront that would thwart neighbors’ views was blocked, and by 2008 much discussion had turned to what to do with a sizable parcel of acreage reaching from downtown to the marina.