The Echo Lake neighborhood was beginning to grow. The open road and rural settings called to those with a car, and businesses and real estate
began to develop for people on the road. Much of the territory around Echo Lake was replatted around 1934 into what was known as “Echo Lake Park.” This was advertised as the ideal setting for getting away and for owning your own little piece of rural America. Soon newer houses sprang up beside and across from the long-time residents. In February of 1939 the Interurban made its last run, becoming a relic of the past.
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1920: The Interurban trestle at 200th Street, going over the tracks, was not built until about 1920 -- ten years after the Interurban route was finished to Everett. Increased car traffic had become a safety issue for the trolley, and the trestle relieved that problem. | 1920: The Newkirks lived on 185th Street around Ashworth Street. View is looking north, toward Echo Lake. Niece Roberta Newkirk is feeding the chickens. Note how the trees are very young, tall and spindly, after the logging 30 years before. |
One of the first areas to develop was just up the hill from the lake, Firland Tuberculosis Sanatorium. The property had been acquired by the Seattle anti-tuberculosis League, and they were preparing to place a number of resident patients, nurses and doctors in the new building. It wasn’t long before the employees at Firland were asking to use the Butzkes’ beach. Then Herman was asked to build a changing room so that the bathers wouldn’t have to traipse back up the hill in their wet, wool bathing suits. The Butzkes readily agreed, and the Echo Lake Bathing Beach was born in 1916. For a nickel, one could spend a heavenly day at the beach. (If you couldn’t pay, Minnie and Florence were likely to let you in anyway.)
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1923: Herman Butzke (R) and an unknown visitor stand before the first little store at the beach. | 1923: Minnie Butzke stands in the foreground in front of the store at the bathing beach. |
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| 1928: Cousins Florence and Herbert Butzke sit in the stern of the rowboat on Echo Lake as Florence's mother, Minnie Butzke, lets her sister-in-law row. Herbert's mother, Louse, sits in the bow. | 1928: Kids have a marvelous time at Echo Lake Bathing Beach! They leap off the logs, swim to the raft, and frolic on the water wheel. |
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| 1926: Florence Butzke, second from right, and four nurses from the Firland Sanitorium (in their wool swim suits!), take a break from swimming to pose for the camera | 1928: Opening Day of fishing season would bring many people to the lake to try their luck. Some even fished from the dive platform long before it was warm enough to swim. |
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1930: Florence's friend Inez Carson poses near the new Echo Lake Bathing Beach sign on the new highway (99) just finished. | 1928: Left to Right are Rush Multon, Twin Benson, and Herbert Butzke, who are renting horses for the day at the Robinson's place. That location is now the site of the Aurora Village shopping center. |
On the left
are many
photographs
taken
over the years of Echo Lake
neighborhood.
One can see
the building
and the steady
development
of the
Echo Lake
Bathing Beach
and of the
areas
surrounding
the lake.
Note the
photograph
taken around
1920, of
the Echo Lake
sign on
Highway 99.
This most
important highway
utilized parts
of the earlier
North Trunk
Road, paved
17 years before.
The new route cut a straight path along the west side of Echo Lake. This would become
Highway 99,
eventually a federal highway stretching from Mexico to Canada.
The new,
straighter
and wider road
abandoned
numerous
sections of
the older brick
thoroughfare.
By 1928, many of those older sections were
relegated to
residential and
other secondary
uses.
Development of the straight road alongside Echo Lake no doubt provided a great boost to the Echo Lake Bathing Beach.
It wasn’t long before competitors and other entre-preneurs took note.
Melby’s Echo Lake Tavern was built in 1927, during Prohibition, and he flaunted their remote location. (Mr. Melby was well-known for his alcohol dealings.)
That tavern is now on the historical register.