Priceless Family Memories Are of Value to the Community

Priceless Family Memories are of Value to the Community

by Alan J Stein

You may not know it, but you could very well have a lot of untapped Kirkland history in your closets and attics. Pull out those old photo albums, slide-shows and home movies and take a real close look at them. Chances are, if you and your family were raised in Kirkland, there's a lot more to these images than meets the eye.

For you, those photos and films probably document your family history. Those births, graduations, weddings, picnics, sporting events, and reunions truly define you and yours. But if you think about it, there is another common thread that runs through your collection - most of those events that mean so much to you happened here in town.

The Kirkland Heritage Society has an extensive photo collection of Kirkland's past. Most of these photos were taken in the first half of this century and many of them are from family collections. At the time the photos were taken, no one gave much thought to their future use. They were just family photos. Today, they mean so much to the entire community.

Let me give you an example. One of the photos in the KHS collection shows some young people horsing around at Juanita Beach around 1916. At face value, it's just a photo of another day at the lake with a bunch of kids goofing around in front the camera. But behind these kids is an odd wooden structure.

As it turns out, this is a rare image of the Urania dock. Before the lake was lowered due to the digging of the Ship Canal, the ferry Urania had a landing in Juanita Bay. After the water fell, this dock was high and dry for a few months before it was torn down. The photo shows the dock during this brief period. It's the only image of its kind.

Okay, you probably don't have photos that go back 80 years, but that doesn't mean that your collection may have rare images also. Recently, while preparing an interpretive marker about central Houghton's growth after WWII, it was noticed that no images of the old Houghton City Hall were in the KHS collection. This building was around just a few decades ago, but what did it look like?

There used to be school buildings at what is now called Waverly Park. Thousands of children graduated from there, but most known pictures show the buildings off in the distance. Didn't anyone with a camera attend community-attended school events? This also applies to every school within the community.

There used to be a civic center at Peter Kirk Park. Kirkland folk referred to it as the White Elephant. It burned in the 1960s, but where are the pictures before that? It loomed in the center of town yet very few images of it are known to exist, but they must. They might be in your collection.

How many proud parents took pictures at local schools during graduation ceremonies? How many pictures are there of countless family picnics at local parks? How many business owners captured their grand openings on cameras? How many festivals and parades were filmed on Kirkland streets?

Home movies are an often overlooked form of historical documentation. A few years ago, I had the opportunity to see family films that some folks on Vashon Island took in 1939. There were scenes of the usual family outings, but at one point the camera panned up and caught a full-screen image of a dirigible floating over the island with biplanes attached underneath. Just another family movie? Think again.

Your family may not have film of something that dramatic, but lots of parents had movie cameras to capture baby's first steps and the like, especially during the 1950s when there were so many babies walking around. Since the baby boom was big in suburban Kirkland, that's a lot of film. Where's it all at today?

The Kirkland Heritage Society would enjoy hearing about your family pictures and films, and would be quite pleased to share information with you. We'd love to hear your stories and if there's something noteworthy in your photo documentation, we may be able to provide you with a few stories in return. Family history is an integral part of community history, and vice versa.

Many people are concerned about handing over family history to someone else, but don't worry. KHS takes great care of materials they borrow, and with today's technology excellent copies can be made. Once the images have been duplicated they are returned to you, and archival acknowledgement is given to your family, if you so desire. The images you wish to share with the community are entirely up to you.

Please dig out your old photos and films and have another look. This time, examine your family's history and think about their place in Kirkland history. Everyone played a part in the growth of the community, and your memories may be of value to others, just as other historic photos are to us all.

If you would like to know more about how your family archives can help to document community history, the Kirkland Heritage Society has regular meetings on the last Wednesday of the month. These meetings are open to the public and are held at the Congregational Church near City Hall. You can also contact me at sangreal@nwlink.com for more information.

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