Kenmore, WA

Seaplanes still rise from the Lake Washington shoreline where Kenmore began as a shingle-mill settlement. John McMasters named the place for his Canadian hometown; the mill, cookhouse, manager’s house, bunkhouse, and worker shacks initially made up the community beside the Sammamish River, where floating logs reached the lake. The Red Brick Highway opened in 1913 and helped settlement spread beyond the mill, while a river bridge around 1918 encouraged development in the Moorlands. The shingle mill burned in 1923, but industrial use continued along the water. Kenmore incorporated on August 31, 1998, long after Kenmore Air was founded there in 1946. As of 2024, Kenmore’s Lake Washington harbor was America’s largest seaplane harbor, and scheduled 2026 seaplane flights connected the lake with the San Juan Islands and Victoria, British Columbia.

The shore still combines industry, transportation, and public access. Building-material suppliers and specialty contractors operate near one of Lake Washington’s remaining industrial ports while boats and seaplanes use the Sammamish River mouth. Log Boom Park opens another part of the same shoreline through a beach, hand-powered launch, pier, and direct Burke-Gilman Trail access. The 3.9-acre park holds roughly 1,200 linear feet of shore, and a 2022 redesign expanded water access and added a history path. State Route 522 and the Burke-Gilman form parallel east–west routes through Kenmore. The 20-mile regional trail between Fremont and Bothell carries bicycle transportation as well as recreation, passing the city’s narrow strip of industrial yards, aircraft activity, launch points, and park space.

Kenmore’s municipal center arrived much later than its waterfront industries. Downtown redevelopment added mixed-use housing and commercial space before Town Square and the Hangar were completed in 2017. The Hangar serves as a free community living room, with seating, Wi-Fi, a fireplace, and a reservable room opening onto the square. City Hall and the library stand nearby, creating a compact civic cluster for the young city. In 2026, the square held a weekly farmers market from June into August and outdoor movies in July and August. Those recurring events now occupy a center built nearly two decades after incorporation. A bicycle repair station at the Hangar provides a practical link between this gathering place and the trail that crosses Kenmore.

South of downtown, Saint Edward State Park preserves another chapter of local institutional history. A Romanesque Revival seminary completed in 1931 closed in 1976; Washington bought the property in 1977 and dedicated the park in 1978. The former seminary reopened as the Lodge at St. Edward in 2021, while the surrounding park kept forest trails and Lake Washington shoreline open for day use. Bastyr University occupies part of the former seminary campus, placing higher education beside the lodge and state park. Four 2026 summer concerts—on July 16 and 30 and August 13 and 27—used the Saint Edward lawn, bringing current performances to the grounds between the historic building and the park’s wooded shoreline.