Community Corner

Then & Now: Small Town Intrigue, 1906

The curious story of this old photo involves early Kirkland politics and the sale of demon rum.

IT'S UNFORTUNATE there are no firsthand witnesses to this scene alive today, since the old black and white image is so provocative -- and certainly shows that controversy in Kirkland politics is nothing new at all.

However, the photo, apparently taken in 1906 or '07 during a dispute stemming from Kirkland’s 1905 incorporation as a city, intrigues me on more than just a political level.

According Loita Hawkinson, president of the , the location of the photo is the current site of the downtown Bank of America branch at the intersection of Lake Street and Kirkland Ave.

Two things about that really pique my curiosity. First, the waters of Lake Washington are lapping at the location. Today the shore is 100 yards to the west, the result of the lake’s lowering in 1916 when the Montlake Cut was dug.

Second, it’s hard to envision that this very busy location in the happening heart of downtown Kirkland was once just an alder thicket on a primitive shore.

But back to the story -- and such an intriguing tale it is! The photo shows a mock city jail and city hall, with a person hanging from same in effigy.

Information supplied with the picture, which is now in the Kirkland Heritage Society archives, says that the scene was the result of a civic dispute by rival protagonists following Kirkland’s incorporation just after the turn of the 20th Century. Apparently when the area became a city, the annual fee for a liquor license rose sharply.

The person being hung in effigy reportedly operated a “grocery” store nearby with a card room, where booze was sold without a license. That riled up city supporters, so the story goes, to the extent that one of them created this scene, hanging the store operator in effigy.

The shack actually served as an ice storage shed. The “jail” was actually a monkey cage from Madison Park across the lake.

Ironically, according to Hawkinson, the person being hung in effigy and the person who did the hanging -- allegedly Jack Ferry and A.B. Newell respectively -- became in-laws in 1917 when daughter Cecile Ferry and son Cole Newell got married.

Boy, you’ve got to love small town politics!


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