LFP residents, including two new council members, tour the Shoreline Historical Museum

Larry Goldman and Tracy Furutani, LFP Council members-elect, and other LFP residents
toured the museum with Kenneth Doutt, Shoreline Historical Museum Executive Director

By Sally Yamasaki

Lake Forest Park Council members-elect Larry Goldman and Tracy Furutani, along with other LFP residents, toured the Shoreline Historical Museum and met new Executive Director Kenneth Doutt.

"This was my first time to visit the museum! It's a great resource for anyone wanting to know the details of Lake Forest Park's history, even before the city of Lake Forest Park existed." commented Furutani.

On our tour of the museum, Doutt handed us cards to write down what excites us most about living in Lake Forest Park. Then, with more critical eyes and minds, we ventured into the museum gallery to see if we could find those elements in the exhibit space.

c. 1935 Lake Forest Park Civic Club. Photo from Shoreline Historical Museum

"To listen and learn first hand from community members is incredibly exciting to me as we begin to rethink and develop our museum spaces," said Doutt.

LFP resident Anne Udaloy, a hydrogeologist, explained that she appreciated the re-created map of the area exhibited from an 1859 survey that included traditional living and land use areas of the Duwamish and other Coast Salish Tribes. 

For her, seeing the confluence of the two major drainages, Lyon and McAleer Creeks, into Lake Washington reminded her of the community's responsibility to care for these streams.

A portion of the re-created map from 1859 showing
Lake Forest Park and its two major creeks.
Photo and map from Shoreline Historical Museum

"Our community has the opportunity, and responsibility, to care for these streams. Plans to preserve the streams were embedded in early documents describing proposed land development, including early deeds, but were not always honored. 

"It's exciting to realize that we are likely to have an exceptional opportunity in the upcoming decade to take meaningful actions in defense of these watersheds," said Udaloy.

The museum has been around before Shoreline was a city and it gets its name from its mission to preserve the history and serve the community of the historical Shoreline School District which ran from "SHORE to SHORE and LINE to LINE." 

In other words, between the shores of Lake Washington and Puget Sound and between the lines of NE 205th St (Snohomish County border) and NE 65th/85th St (former Seattle city limit).

In 1961, Lake Forest Park officially became a city, then in 1995 Shoreline followed suit. So, although the museum’s name is Shoreline Historical Museum, it includes the communities of Lake Forest Park, Shoreline, and part of North Seattle.

"If we want to have a good plan for where Lake Forest Park might go in the future, it's important to understand the history. The Shoreline Historical Museum provides a good background about the history of Lake Forest Park and the region," said Goldman.

The museum is located at 18501 Linden Ave N. near Fred Meyer on Aurora. For more information call: 206-542-711 or www.shorelinehistoricalmuseum.org.

To learn more about Lake Forest Park History, visit: https://youtu.be/VHHpJwFMeYs

Speaker Vicki Stiles: "Shoreline Historical Museum, commemorates Lake Forest Park's 60th Anniversary with a trip through time, examining the people and events that helped make Lake Forest Park uniquely what it is today."