Community Corner

Then & Now: The Anderson Shipyard In Houghton in the Early 1900s

This fabulous photo taken some time between 1905 and 1923 shows the site of today's Carillon Point.

Around 100 years have passed since this incredible photo of surprisingly high quality was taken on the hill just above today’s Carillon Point on Lake Washington.

It shows the Anderson Shipyard, owned at least in part by Swedish immigrant and Lake Washington steamboat mogul John L. Anderson, sometime between 1905 and 1923.

Its quality is, no doubt, due to the fact that it was taken by the Webster & Stevens studios, owned by pioneer Northwest photographers and photojournalists Ira Webster and Nelson Stevens.

More than 50 years of shipbuilding history at this spot began in 1901, when the Houghton pioneer Curtis family layed the keel for their boat the Peerless. Some time not long afterward, the family boat works were purchased by Anderson et al, who made a variety of wooden craft until 1923, when the yard was sold and renamed the Lake Washington Shipyards.

The photo is dated 1905, but Loita Hawkinson, president of the Kirkland Heritage Society, where the image is archived, is not so sure. The shoreline on the right appears as though the picture was taken after the level of the lake was lowered in 1916 with the construction of the Montlake Cut and the Ballard Locks, she notes.

And the big masted ships at berth, don’t they seem a little large for use on Lake Washington?

But the photo must have been taken before 1923, when the yard was sold and became the Lake Washington Shipyards, which went on to build ships during World War II.

Whenever it was taken, the photograph is magnificent, documenting the construction process from scratch. Note the stacked lumber and nearby, the hull of a ship under construction? I also love the guy in the foreground, wearing what appears to be a top hat leaning against the lumber.

Also, look at the variety of craft across the breadth of the yard. Didn’t somebody once say there’s nothing quite so fine as messing about boats?

I’d almost almost walk the plank for an opportunity to go back in time and and thoroughly examine that shipyard on that day.

For a cool story about they heydays of steamboat traffic on Lake Washington and the Anderson operation, check out this page from historylink.org.


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