Then & Now: The Old Phone Co. Building on Market & Central Way

This grand old structure stood at the corner of Central Way and Market Street in downtown Kirkland until it was demolished in the 1950s, and some long-time residents remember it well.

For years it housed the Lake Washington Telephone Company, but its curious history reaches back to very early Kirkland. It was, in fact, the first major structure built in what became downtown Kirkland, in 1888 during the Peter Kirk “boom” years, such as they were.

This spot on one of Kirkland’s major downtown corners is well above and beyond the shore of Lake Washington, but when the two-story building was constructed as a bank it was very near those sparkling waters. In 1916, of course, the lake was lowered almost nine feet with the creation of the Montlake Cut, giving the lake its current shoreline.

But there’s even more history to the old building. To create their envisioned empire, Kirk and company built a brick works on a stream, now long gone, near today’s Third Street and Peter Kirk Park. The first bricks were used to build this structure, intended as the headquarters for the venture.

More bricks from the works were used to build four structures on Market and Seventh just up the hill, three of which remain, most notably the that today houses the .

Kirk’s dream ultimately fizzled due to various and yet debated circumstances, but the building remained, anchoring the corner of Central Way and Market. Its exterior was modified over the years, judging by the attached earlier photo of the building -- showing the original shoreline of the lake. It appears to have been smoothed over with stucco.

Today the site hosts a condominium complex with ground-floor retail space, as you can see in the “Now” photo taken last week.

The old photo of the telephone company building, now in the archives of the Kirkland Heritage Society, is undated. But judging by appearances, I would say it was taken in the late 1940s or early 1950s. The earlier photo, also in the society archives, had to have been taken before 1916.

Whenever they were taken, the building was sure a classic beauty -- now just another page in Kirkland’s splendid history.