Burien, Washington

About Bothell, Washington

The Sammamish River valley from Lake Washington to Issaquah Creek was historically inhabited by the indigenous Sammamish people (also known as the "s-tah-PAHBSH", or "willow people"), a Coast Salish group with an estimated population of 80 to 200 by 1850. Among them were the "ssts'p-abc" ("meander dwellers"), who settled near the river's mouth at two villages—the larger of which was "tlah-WAH-dees" between modern-day Kenmore and Bothell. The Sammamish were removed from their lands in 1856 following the Puget Sound War and moved to the Port Madison and Tulalip indian reservations. The first American claims to the lower Sammamish River valley, then mostly a marshland, were filed in 1870 by Columbus S. Greenleaf and George R. Wilson. Eight families followed over the next six years. In 1876, Canadian George Brackett bought land and began commercial logging out of a camp located on the north bank of the Sammamish River in what is now the heart of downtown Bothell. A store, school, and sawmill followed over the next several years. In 1885, Brackett sold 80 acres (32 ha) to David Bothell, a settler and American Civil War veteran from Pennsylvania. The town's first postmaster, who bought his property from Bothell, named the town in his honor when it was platted in 1888. Later that same year, a local railroad was built through the town to transport coal from Issaquah. Bothell was officially incorporated on April 14, 1909. Bothell continued to grow as logging expanded and boat traffic brought increasing amounts of goods and passengers up and down the river. As more people moved into the area, the Army Corps of Engineers decided to dredge and straighten the river in the years shortly after Bothell's incorporation. Most boat traffic came to an abrupt end only a few years later when Lake Washington was lowered in 1917. Water transport also shifted to trucks after a brick road was built from Seattle. The logging economy declined quickly around the same time, and the local economy shifted to farming. After World War II, better highways and a post-war boom brought suburban development to Bothell. These new neighborhoods and a series of annexations dramatically expanded Bothell's population from about 1,000 in 1950 to over 45,000 as of 2017. A failed attempt to annex part of the adjacent community of Woodinville in the 1980s led to them incorporating as a separate city in 1993. In 1992, the city annexed an area in southern Snohomish County, becoming a dual-county city and adding 11,400 people. During the decade, the city's population had increased by 144 percent to over 30,000. Bothell was mostly a bedroom community for people working in Seattle until the 1990s, when business development brought new jobs to create a regional employment center in Canyon Park with about 20,000 jobs, many in high technology sectors such as biotechnology and software development. In 1990, a campus of the University of Washington opened in Bothell. In 2010, the city of Bothell began a $150 million program to redevelop downtown, including the demolition of 15 buildings, moving State Route 522, expanding the Bothell–Everett Highway, expanding a city park, and expanding the city hall. The realigned State Route 522 was opened in August 2013 and was followed by a redesign of Bothell Way (formerly State Route 527) in 2017 that created a wide boulevard with separate laneways for parking. The projects were originally planned to be funded with a $42 million property tax proposition that was rejected by voters in November 2014. A major fire in downtown broke out at the Mercantile Building on July 22, 2016, damaging and closing more than 20 businesses. The fire hindered the redevelopment program and required state aid for rebuilding.