Kirkland is a city in King County, Washington, United States. A suburb east of Seattle, its population was 92,175 in the 2020 U.S. census which made it the sixth largest city in King County and the twelfth largest city in the state of Washington.
The city's downtown waterfront has restaurants, art galleries, a performing arts center, public parks, beaches, and a collection of public art that includes bronze sculptures.
Kirkland was the original home of the Seattle Seahawks; the NFL team's headquarters and training facility were located at the Lake Washington Shipyard (now Carillon Point) along Lake Washington for their first ten seasons then at nearby Northwest University through 2007. Warehouse chain Costco previously had its headquarters in Kirkland. While Costco is now headquartered in Issaquah, the city is the namesake of its "Kirkland Signature" store brand. American video game company Valve was also founded in Kirkland.
History
The land around Lake Washington to the east of Seattle was first settled by bands of the indigenous Duwamish people, including the x̌ačua’bš ("lake people") and təbɬtubixʷabš ("people of the loamy place" or "ochre-painted people"). Several Duwamish village sites lie within the modern-day boundaries of Kirkland, including staɬaɬ ("a fathom measure") in the modern-day downtown and təbɬtubixʷ ("loamy place" or "ochre-painted") at Juanita Bay. The indigenous settlements were close to natural resources, including salmon, venison, and wapato plants harvested for their bulbs. Disease such as smallpox eliminated a majority of the local indigenous population with the development around Lake Washington, including lowering the water level for the Ship Canal in 1916 left the remaining population to decline further.
English settlers arrived in the late 1860s, when the McGregor and Popham families built homesteads in what is now the Houghton neighborhood. to the north people also settled near what is now called Juanita Bay, a favored campsite of the Duwamish because of the abundance of wapato there. The Curtis family arrived in the area in the 1870s, followed by the French family in 1872. The Forbes family homesteaded what is now Juanita Beach Park in 1876, and settled on Rose Hill in 1877. Gradually, additional people settled in the area, and by the end of the 1880s a small number of logging, farming and boatbuilding communities were established.
In 1886, Peter Kirk, a British-born enterprising businessman seeking to expand the family's Moss Bay steel production company, moved to Washington after hearing that iron deposits had been discovered in the Cascade Range. Other necessary components such as limestone, needed in steel smelting, were readily available in the area. Further yet, a small number of coal mines (a required fuel source for steel mills) had recently been established nearby in Newcastle and train lines were already under construction. Plans were also underway to build the Lake Washington Ship Canal.
Kirk realized that if a town were built near the water it would be a virtual freshwater port to the sea, as well as help support any prospective mill. At the time, however, Kirk was not a U.S. citizen and could not purchase any land. Leigh S. J. Hunt, then owner of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, offered to partner with Kirk and buy the necessary real estate.
Under their new venture, the Kirkland Land and Development Company, Kirk and Hunt purchased thousands of acres of land in what is now Kirkland's downtown in July 1888. Kirk and his associates started the construction of a new steel mill soon after, named the Moss Bay Iron and Steel Company of America. After founding the city of Kirkland in 1888, officially one of the earliest on the Eastside at the time, Kirk's vision of a "Pittsburgh of the West" was beginning to take form. Construction soon commenced on several substantial brick homes and business blocks that would house and serve the steel mill employees.
However, the Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railway, which had recently been purchased by Tacoma-based Northern Pacific, had now refused to construct a rail line to the lake. This would, after all, have a negative impact on Tacoma, which was furiously competing with Seattle as the dominant Puget Sound seaport. The ensuing financial issues and numerous obstacles took a toll on Kirk, who was running out of investors. Hunt was also in debt from the purchase of land.
Nevertheless, the plans continued and the steel mill was eventually completed in late 1892 on Rose Hill (a full from the lake's shore). Financial issues arose and due to the Panic of 1893 the mill subsequently closed without ever producing any steel. In spite of everything, Kirk was determined not to give up on his namesake town, and Kirkland was finally incorporated in 1905 with a population of approximately 532. A final attempt at a steel mill in Kirkland was planned by James A. Moore in 1906. His Northwestern Iron & Steel Company paid $250,000 in cash for a site, but the mill never materialized. This came at the heels of the Pacific Steel Company, incorporated earlier in 1906 by J.F. Duthie, William Calvert and L.S. Cragin. This company soon amounted to nothing.
In 1900, the Curtis family made a living operating a ferry-construction business on Lake Washington. Along with Captain John Anderson, the Curtises were among the first to run ferries in the area. Leschi, first operated on December 27, 1913, was the original wooden ferry to transport automobiles and people between the Eastside and Madison Park until her retirement in 1950. The ferry operations ran nearly continuously for 18 hours each day. The construction of the first Lake Washington floating bridge in 1940, however, made ferry service unprofitable and eventually led to its cancellation. Subsequent years saw wool milling and warship building become the major industries.
By 1917, after the completion of the Lake Washington Ship Canal, the construction of ocean-going vessels had become a major business. By 1940, the thriving Lake Washington Shipyard had constructed more than 25 warships during World War II for the U.S. Navy, on what is now Carillon Point.
Annexations
Since the incorporation of Kirkland in 1905, the city has grown to approximately 12 times its original geographic boundaries, nearly doubling in size during the 1940s and 1960s.
Kirkland consolidated with the neighboring town of Houghton on July 31, 1968, to form one city of 13,500. It annexed the neighborhood of Totem Lake in 1974, and the neighborhoods of South Juanita, North Rose Hill, and South Rose Hill in 1988, which were the largest annexations undertaken in Washington in nearly two decades. This added a further 16,119 people to Kirkland's population and was responsible for 76 percent of Kirkland's population increase between 1980 and 1990.
On November 3, 2009, responding to a county initiative to encourage cities to annex or incorporate many of the unincorporated areas within the county, as well as a state sales tax incentive intended to ease the process, three previously unincorporated districts north of the city—Finn Hill, North Juanita, and Kingsgate—voted on whether to annex to Kirkland. The measure failed by seven votes to reach the 60% margin, which was required because the measure included accepting a share of the city's voter-approved debt. However, since the affirmative vote was over 50%, the city council could and did vote to accept the annexation, without the assumption of debt.
The annexation added 33,000 residents (combined total population of around 80,000) and nearly to Kirkland on June 1, 2011. For a 10-year period from 2011 to 2021, the city was eligible and filed annually for a special Annexation State Sales Tax Credit (ASTC) from the State of Washington to bridge the millions of dollars deficit in providing municipal services in the annexation area. The ASTC expired in 2021.
Geography The city's downtown lies along Lake Washington's Moss Bay and includes a business district, restaurants, art galleries, and parks. Downtown and the surrounding Moss Bay neighborhood has thousands of condominiums and apartments, largely built since the 1990s. Kirkland is among the most compact suburban cities in the state of Washington, with a higher population density than most Eastside cities.
Kirkland is accessible via Interstate 405, which connects it with other Eastside cities, including Bellevue, Renton, and Bothell. Seattle, which is across Lake Washington to the west of Kirkland, as well as Redmond to the east, are both accessible through State Route 520.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which are land and are water. The elevation varies from 14 to above sea level.
Climate Kirkland's average temperature is , and the average annual precipitation . The highest temperature was recorded as on June 28, 2021. The lowest temperature was recorded as in January 1950.
Demographics
, the median household in the city was $143,533 and per capita income was $88,015.
Racial and ethnic composition +Kirkland, Washington – Racial and ethnic compositionRace / Ethnicity (NH = Non-Hispanic)Pop 2000Pop 2010% 2000% 2010White alone (NH)37,43837,02458,84783.10%75.89%63.84%Black or African American alone (NH)6888051,8421.53%1.65%2.00%Native American or Alaska Native alone (NH)2111482520.47%0.30%0.27%Asian alone (NH)3,4975,46516,3877.76%11.20%17.78%Pacific Islander alone (NH)831231640.18%0.25%0.18%Other race alone (NH)1072419260.24%0.49%1.00%Mixed Race or Multi-Racial (NH)1,1781,8966,4732.61%3.89%7.02%Hispanic or Latino (any race)1,8523,0857,2844.11%6.32%7.90%Total45,05448,78792,175100.00%100.00%100.00%
2020 census As of the 2020 census, Kirkland had a population of 92,175 and a median age of 37.9 years.
20.6% of residents were under the age of 18 and 13.6% of residents were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 97.7 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 95.5 males age 18 and over.
100.0% of residents lived in urban areas, while 0.0% lived in rural areas.
There were 38,037 households in Kirkland, of which 29.2% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 51.1% were married-couple households, 17.9% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 23.9% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 27.9% of all households were made up of individuals and 8.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.
There were 40,019 housing units, of which 5.0% were vacant. The homeowner vacancy rate was 0.9% and the rental vacancy rate was 5.3%.
+ Racial composition as of the 2020 census Race Number Percent White 60,418 65.5% Black or African American 1,909 2.1% American Indian and Alaska Native 423 0.5% Asian 16,485 17.9% Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander 179 0.2% Some other race 3,313 3.6% Two or more races 9,448 10.3% Hispanic or Latino (of any race) 7,284 7.9%
2010 census As of the 2010 census, there were 48,787 people, 22,445 households, and 12,014 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 24,345 dwelling units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 79.3% White, 1.8% African American, 0.4% Native American, 11.3% Asian, 0.3% Pacific Islander, 2.5% from other races, and 4.5% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 6.3% of the population.
There were 22,445 households, of which 24.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 42.3% were married couples living together, 7.6% had a female householder with no husband present, 3.6% had a male householder with no wife present, and 46.5% were non-families. 36.0% of all households were made up of individuals, and 8.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.15 and the average family size was 2.83.