Community Corner

Then & Now Update: Old Kirkland Gateway Cannon Located in Seattle

Two cannons once guarded the southern entrance to the city on Lake Street, which in 1923 was at 10th Avenue South, and one of them now sits at the Veterans' Memorial section of Evergreen Washelli Cemetery in Seattle.

UPDATE, Feb. 13, 8 a.m.: One of the two cannons that once stood at the southern entrance to Kirkland along Lake Street has been located and photographed by reader Rich Priest, who was kind enough to share three photos.

The Spanish-American War 7-inch cannon was removed from Kirkland in 1937 and donated to the Veterans' Memorial section of Evergreen Washelli Cemetery in Seattle. During a recent visit Priest, who went by Rich Webb when he lived in Kirkland in the 1960s and now lives in Kent, snapped these fine photos of the cannon. Priest said he talked to a groundskeeper at the cemetery who said only one of the Kirkland cannons is there. It sits on the southeast side of the Veterans section.

A plaque indicates the cannon was donated by the Warren Grimm Post No. 83 of the American Legion on Sept. 19, 1937.

Priest's grandparents lived in Kirkland beginning in the 1955, and an uncle was a Kirkland police officer in the 1950s. It’s great to see at least one of the two old Kirkland cannons survives, and Patch would like to thank Rich Priest for sharing the photos!

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Original story, Jan. 15:

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Once gracing the southern entrance to Kirkland, at the city’s boundary with the pre-annexation city of Houghton, was this fabulous gateway, replete with two seven-inch wheeled cannons.

The gateway was created in the 1920s and dedicated in either 1923 or '25 with a ceremony that included Kirkland veterans of the time, most of them World War I vets but reportedly including some from the Spanish-American War. That would be appropriate, since the cannons were surplus weaponry from the Spanish-American War.

The photo is now in the archives of the Kirkland Heritage Society, and the information with it indicates that two of these veterans were quite prominent citizens. Second from right is Dr. Ernest C. McKibben Sr., who began his medical practice in Kirkland in 1914 and was followed by his son Dr. Ernest McKibben Jr., who passed away just last November at 91.

Fourth from right is Harold P. “Dick” Everest, whose granddaughter, Sarah Jane Everest donated the image and many others to the heritage society. Dick Everest was a 1912 Kirkland High School graduate who served in WWI and owned the East Side Journal -- and baseball field are named in his honor. Dick dated the pic at 1923, but information with it indicates that newspaper files show the cannons came to town in 1925.

Today, nothing special marks the location of the gateway, near today’s 10th Avenue South along Lake Street South, right about where Lake Street becomes Lake Washington Boulevard. The gateway's life was not long. It was removed sometime in the 1930s, apparently after a car crashed into one of the bulwarks -- they sure looked cool, but perhaps were not placed in the safest location.

One or two of the cannons apparently survives, at the Veterans' Memorial section of Evergreen Washelli Cemetery in Seattle. A Seattle Times article dated in September of 1937 indicates they were placed there and dedicated in a ceremony attended by area veterans, but word is only one remains.

Too bad they couldn’t have been placed somewhere around town -- perhaps as a tribute to all the residents of Kirkland who have served their country over the decades.


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