John McMaster names the Village of Kenmore on January 10, 1901

North Lake Washington near Kenmore, May 26, 1901
Photo by H. Ambrose Kiehl, Courtesy UW Special Collections (KHL206)

By Alan J. Stein

HistoryLink.org Essay 2927

On January 10, 1901, mill owner John McMaster (1849-1930) names the village of Kenmore in honor of his previous home of Kenmore, Ontario. McMaster also serves as the community's first postmaster. Kenmore is located in King County 12 miles north of Seattle and 2.5 miles west of Bothell at the north end of Lake Washington.

John McMaster moved to the Pacific Northwest in 1889, and was a prominent shingle mill operator in Snohomish and Kitsap counties before establishing the McMaster Shingle Mill in Kenmore in 1901. In 1903, he became Kenmore's first postmaster, with the opening of the first post office, which delivered mail from the company store of his sawmill.

McMaster chose the name Kenmore in honor of his earlier home in Kenmore, Ontario. Kenmore, Ontario, was in turn named for the town of Kenmore, Scotland, and a century later the village still honors its Scottish roots with an annual Founders' Day celebration, held on January 10.

Sources:

Guy Reed Ramsey, "Postmarked Washington, 1850-1960," Microfilm (Olympia: Washington State Library, February, 1966), 672-673; Additional information provided by the Kenmore Heritage Society.