In 1886, Peter Kirk, an enterprising steel mill owner from Workington, England,
auctioned off his property and manor in England and headed to America in hopes
of finding a excellent location to expand the family’s Moss Bay Company steel
production. After learning that iron deposits had just been discovered in the
Cascade mountain range in Washington state, he traveled west.
Like many entrepreneurs in his time, he had big ideas, particularly for the land
east of Seattle by the waters of Lake Washington. He discovered that coalmines,
the needed fuel source for a mill, had been established nearby in Newcastle.
Limestone, another necessary component in steel smelting, was also readily
available. Train lines were already under construction and plans were underway
to build a canal between Lake Washington and Puget Sound, making any city on the
lake a freshwater port to the sea. Kirk believed with those elements in place,
the lake’s eastern shore was the perfect place to build a strong town to support
a productive steel mill.
Because only U.S. citizens were allowed to own real estate, Kirk partnered with
Leigh S.J. Hunt, then owner of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, to buy the land
for construction of the mill. Working together, they built the framework and
incorporated the Kirkland Land and Improvement Company with other investment
partners including A.A. Denny, Walter Williams and George Hilbron. Kirk
announced his intention to build the Moss Bay Iron and Steel Works with high
hopes of creating the “Pittsburgh of the West.” The steel mill, designed to
employ thousands of workers who would live in the town, would help the area grow
and prosper.
Work quickly began with thousands of acres of land bought by Kirkland Land and
Improvement Company near what is now downtown Kirkland. Of the 5,000 acres
purchased, 200 acres were set aside for the steel mill that would eventually be
set atop what is now Rose Hill. Streets were platted, and homes were built for
the workers needed to run the mill. Plans were underway for a bank, hotel and
other businesses at the intersection of Market Street and what is now 7th
Avenue. A brickworks was built to handle the large task of creating these
buildings.
Furthering the development and establishment of the area, the locally named
Pleasant Bay was renamed to Yarrow Bay near what is now Carillon Point. Moss
Bay, adjacent to the present downtown was named after the bay in Kirk’s home of
Workington. Established streets were given names of British origin including
Piccadilly, Oxford, Regency and so forth. All seemed to be moving in the right
direction, but Kirk soon found himself facing a path of roadblocks ahead.
Because of politics and competition, the spur line that Kirk had wanted to run
down to Lake Washington would not come to fruition. The railroad would not build
it. In order for the steel mill to be viable, Kirk needed the rail’s location
along the lake, but without the rail line, the mill’s construction could not
move forward. This change forced Kirk to redesign and plan for construction near
the closest location from the railroad, two miles east of the shore, on top of
Rose Hill near Forbes Lake.
Accommodating this new situation sent both Kirk and Hunt deeply into debt as
they sold stock and investments and bought more land. They were determined to
succeed.
Kirk heavily invested in the area with the mill and even building his own home
in the city along Waverly Way overlooking Lake Washington (Kirk’s home was torn
down in 1916). Hard times with Kirk’s mill in England moved many of the workers
to Kirkland; they were hoping to find prosperity with Kirk’s new venture.
Though work continued on the mill, its location made the logistics of successful
operations challenging. Water had to be piped in to the site. The city center
was redesigned and the office buildings were constructed in a location that
provided access to the mill, and rail lines were slowly constructed near the ore
deposits in the Cascades.
Though Kirk attempted to persevere over the obstacles, a nationwide financial
collapse forced the end to the mill. Known as the Crash of 1893, the downturn in
the economy meant that no rail line would be build, no canal dredged, no mill
constructed and no workers hired.
But Kirk never gave up on his beloved town. Still hoping that a future canal
would be built, he held on to a majority of his land holdings and slowly
parceled them out over the years. Virtually all of the company’s land was sold
to Burke & Farrar in 1910. Kirk later retired and moved north to the San Juan
Islands where, in 1916, he died in his sleep. Though his dreams were never
realized, Peter Kirk's efforts helped to begin that little town that has now
grown into the Kirkland we know today.
Peter Kirk history and information provided courtesy of Alan J. Stein and the
Kirkland Heritage Society.
