King County Historic Preservation

06/11/2026

With a warm weekend coming up, and crowds from the World Cup, it might be a good time to get out on one of King County's Heritage Corridors. The website for these corridors was recently updated, so check it out and enjoy all that unincorporated King County has to offer!

The Historic and Scenic Corridors Project is a grant-funded project that identifies and preserves our county’s rich transportation history.

06/05/2026

We've shared this image before, but so many things are blooming right now, we thought it would be nice to have a pop of color and a historic building before the weekend. The gambrel roof barn was built in 1942 when the property was the Coy Brothers Farm. The builder was Herman Jerstad. The barn is now part of the Cherry Valley Dairy.

05/15/2026

Since we're nearing the anniversary of Mt. St. Helen's 1980 eruption, we thought we'd mention one of the more significant volcanic events in King County history, the Osceola Mudflow, or lahar. More than 5,000 years ago this lahar from Mt. Rainier created the Enumclaw Plateau, and it remains the largest relatively flat area in King County. The lahar filled in creeks and ravines and changed river courses, but created a broad area that became a significant agricultural economic engine in the late 19th century through today.

05/13/2026

Yesterday King County preservation staff attended a virtual session on "Structural Stabilization of Historic Masonry Buildings." We occasionally get some extra instruction so we can assist historic landmark owners around the county. We don't have that many brick buildings in our inventory, but they are often subject to seismic damage and freeze-thaw cycles that can damage the brick or stone. This example is from downtown Issaquah.

05/04/2026

May the 4th be with you! King County has a historic connection to Star Wars...with a former landfill compactor called "The Mole." It's rumored it was the prototype for the Tatooine sandcrawlers in the original movie! Our office still has film of this beast in action!

The Mole, a 1960s trash-compacter from Cedar Hills is rumored to be the inspiration for the sandcrawlers in Star Wars.

05/01/2026

We wanted to congratulate Sarah J. Martin for accepting a special role with Historic Seattle to prepare landmark nominations for important properties in Seattle. Sarah has done a number of landmark nominations for property owners in King County; rarely do we see such comprehensive research. In the last few years we’ve designated several of her nominations including the Charnley House in Shoreline (built 1967). It’s significant for its distinctive Modern Movement architectural design by the Seattle-based firm Nelsen, Sabin & Varey and for its association with Donn Charnley, a Washington State legislator and senator in the 1970s and 1980s. Another one is the Wenberg House in Issaquah (built 1963). It was designed by architect Omer Mithun of the Bellevue-based firm Mithun & Associates Architects and built by Swedish immigrant carpenter and builder Gustav Bruse. Finally, Sarah took on documenting the Preston Mill Drying Kiln (built ca. 1910), a rare surviving industrial building associated with the early 20th century heyday of lumbering in eastern King County.