The City of Shoreline publishes a 120 page booklet entitled "Owner's Manual, Your Guide to Services and Participation".  It includes a small section on the history of Shoreline.  Nora Smith, the "Neighborhood and Public Outreach Coordinator" for the City of Shoreline gave us  permission to reproduce it here.

 

History of Shoreline 

 

Although it is a relatively new city, Shoreline boasts a unique history and character derived from original settlements dating back to the late 1800s. The quality that drew early settlers to the area remains dominant to this day: location. The City of Shoreline offers classic Puget Sound beauty and the convenience of suburban living with the attractions of nearby urban opportunities.

 

Before becoming a city in 1995, Shoreline was an island of unincorporated King County surrounded by the older cities of Seattle, Edmonds, Woodway and Lake Forest Park. Covering 11.5 square miles, Shoreline is Washington’s fifteenth largest city with more than 53,000 residents. It is primarily residential with more than 70 percent of the households being single-family residences. Over the years, the Shoreline community has developed a reputation for strong neighborhoods, excellent schools and abundant parks.

 

Shoreline’s natural beauty, abundant resources and location - within reach of Seattle, yet far enough away to be considered semi-rural - were recognized by the first settlers to live in the area. Those same characteristics continue to describe Shoreline today.

 

Early accounts of Shoreline tell how Native Americans traveled along the shores of Puget Sound and local streams collecting swordfern and kinnikinic at Richmond Beach, and wild cranberries at what are now Ronald Bog and Twin Ponds parks. Controlled fires were set in the Richmond Highlands and North City areas to create meadows for the cultivation of certain wild plants and to provide inviting, open spaces for small game.

As railroad fever gripped the Northwest in the 1880s, speculators planned towns in anticipation of the transcontinental railroad route. Among these was Richmond Beach, platted in 1890. The arrival of the Great Northern Railroad in Richmond Beach in 1891 spurred the growth of the small town and increased the pace of development in the wooded uplands.

 

Construction of the Seattle-Everett Interurban line through Shoreline in 1906 and the paving of the North Trunk Road with bricks in 1913, made travel to and from Shoreline easier, which increased suburban growth. People could live on a large lot, raise much of their own food and still be able to take the Interurban train, or beginning in 1914, the bus to work or high school in Seattle. Children could attend one of two local elementary schools, and general stores provided most of the goods that could not be grown at home. Local produce from fruit orchards, chicken farms and strawberry fields could be shipped to the city via the Interurban or the train. The Fish family’s Queen City Poultry Ranch on Greenwood at 159th was a prosperous chicken farm which attracted many visitors curious about scientific farming techniques.

 

During the early 20th century, Shoreline attracted large developments due to its rural yet accessible location. These included the Highlands and Seattle Golf Club (ca. 1908) and the Firland Tuberculosis Sanitarium (ca. 1911) which is now CRISTA Ministries. Commercial centers formed around the Interurban stops at Ronald (175th and Aurora) and Richmond Highlands (185th and Aurora). Car travel broadened the settlement pattern considerably by the mid-1920s. Although large tracts of land had been divided into smaller lots in the 1910s in anticipation of future development, houses were still scattered.

 

The Great Depression and World War II (1929-1945) slowed the pace of housing development. During the Depression, many Shoreline families eked out a living on land they had purchased in better times.

By the late 1930s, commercial development concentrated along Aurora, which saw steadily increasing use as part of the region’s primary north-south travel route - U.S. Highway 99. Traffic on 99 swelled, particularly after the closing of the Interurban in 1939.

 

During World War II, building materials were rationed and private housing construction virtually stopped. The only major development in Shoreline during the war was the Naval Hospital (now Fircrest). At its peak in 1945, the hospital housed over 2,000 patients and 600 staff members.

 

With the end of the war came a tremendous demand for family housing. The late 1940s saw large housing developments such as Ridgecrest (between N.E. 165th to 155th and 5th to 10th N.E.) spring up seemingly overnight. Schools ran on double shifts as families with young children moved into the new homes. In the late 1940s, business leaders and residents began to see Shoreline as a unified region rather than scattered settlements concentrated at Interurban stops and railroad accesses.

 

In 1944, the name “Shoreline” was used for the first time to describe the school district. Coined by a student at the Lake City Elementary School, it defined a community which went from city line to county line and from the shore of Puget Sound to the shore of Lake Washington.

Finally in 1995 Shoreline offically incorporated as a city.  Today, with more than 53,000 residents, Shoreline is Washington's fifteenth largest city. 

 

 

Our first article is about the Firland Sanatorium in the heart of Hillwood, now Crista Ministries. The Shoreline Museum recently had an outstanding exhibit about the Firland Sanatorium. The Executive Director, Vicki Stiles, graciously and generously provided most of the information for this article from the text accompanying the photographs of that exhibit.

Firland I - Tuberculosis and the Firland Sanatorium

Also called “consumption,” the disease of Tuberculosis was the main cause of death and grew unchecked throughout the nation in the 1800s. By 1900, Seattle had one of the highest incidences of TB per capita in the United States. There were no drugs to treat TB until the 1950s. The early “cure” was fresh air, rest and sunshine, preferably in a “Sanatorium” where patients could be cared for, often for years. The Anti-Tuberculosis League was formed in 1909, reporting “it became apparent to the thinking people of King County that something definite and tangible should be done in order to bring under control as rapidly as possible the disease known as Tuberculosis.”

Under the guidance of Horace Henry, whose son Walter had died of TB in 1910, the Anti-Tuberculosis League appointed a “Committee on Sanatorium.” The committee worked with the King county commissioners, who agreed to appropriate $4,000 for construction and equipment, and Horace Henry donated 34 acres of property lying 12 miles north of the city, along with a $25,000 gift in memory of his son. The City of Seattle also approved a $10,000 bond in the 1910 spring election.

On May 2, 1911, the Henry Sanatorium opened with two patients, a superintendent and one registered nurse, occupying a small administration building and an infirmary made out of a “tent house.” Twenty more buildings were built that year, mostly open-air cottages for the treatment of the increasing number of patients.

Building materials for the sanatorium were carted by wheelbarrow from the Interurban Station at what would become 185th and Aurora all the way to what would eventually be 195th and Fremont. No road existed at the time, although other local notables, such as Judge James T. Ronald and John Whitham, had been lobbying heavily for the county to put in a good paved road. Their timely request was further supported by the need created by the up-and-coming TB hospital. Amid the grumbling of some county commissioners who didn’t think a road was necessary, the red-bricked North Trunk Road was finished by 1913. The road made a purposeful, angled, northwest turn toward the sanatorium, and that angled part eventually became known as “Firland’s Way.”

The Anti-Tuberculosis League could not keep up with the demand for treatment. At their request, a citizen’s commission was appointed by the City of Seattle to study how the sanatorium could meet the need. The commission proposed a bond issue to provide funds for larger permanent buildings and more equipment. In turn, the Anti-Tuberculosis League would turn over the land and existing buildings to the City of Seattle.

On March 12, 1912, the measure was passed by a staggering 82% of the vote. Although the exact date of the change in name for the sanatorium is up for debate, it was probably around this time that that it received the name Firland.

Horace Henry donated another $25,000, and ground was broken for the Walter H. Henry Memorial Administration Building on July 13, 1913. The “Power House” (boilers and utilities) and the infirmary known as the Detweiler Building were also built at the same time.

The Firland campus on Fremont grew and by 1937 was able to treat up to 250 patients - although a seemingly small number when faced with 3,000 cases at any given time in King County. The campus was nearly self-sufficient, relying on both staff and ambulatory patients to do the work of the various facilities. The book History of Firland published by the sanatorium print shop in 1937 says: “The occupational therapy department is self-sustaining and not a burden to the tax payer.” Patients were often at the facility for a number of years, so vocational training and occupational therapy were crucial for a smooth reintroduction into society.

Once well enough to move around and perform duties, patients had many choices in what they could do: There was a farm, large storage facilities for food and supplies, a print shop, a laundry, kitchen, bakery, mechanical arts, photography, domestic arts, barber and beauty shops, clerical work and radio. Some were even paid positions. During the Depression, the WPA contracted with the Firland facility to train workers from the outside community to learn trades such as sewing and printing. Additionally, patients could “go” to school, studying both elementary and high school subjects - students graduated from Lincoln high, sometimes while still flat on their backs in bed. College classes were available as well. Instructors from all three levels regularly visited the Firland campus to administer lessons.

Firland II

The Navy hospital, built in 1943-44 on property leased from the State of Washington at NE 155th and 15th NE, was used through the end of WWII, after which it was no longer needed by the Navy. In September of 1947, the City of Seattle Health Department and the King County Health Department merged, turning the care of tuberculosis patients over entirely to the county. On Thanksgiving Day, 1947, 399 patients from Firland Sanatorium and from another Seattle sanatorium were moved to the Naval hospital, which was given the name Firland. By December of 1948, there were 750 patients.

The old campus was leased to Crista Ministries under the name King’s Garden, and the Crista Ministries organization eventually purchased the historic property from the county.

When the relocated Firland Sanatorium closed for good in 1973, the sheltered workshop remained in service; it may be the longest continually operating such workshop in the Untied States. That state property has continued to be used by many different state, county, school and non-profit organizations and departments. 11/07