Then & Now: McFarland's Shop, 1922

This fascinating photo from Kirkland in the 1920s is compelling not only for its documentation of the town’s early storefront days, but also for what we discovered about the man in the shot, one John Enos McFarland.

His time in Kirkland might have been short, but in his long life he did a lot more than run this store on Kirkland Avenue near the old Lake Washington ferry landing, which is now . McFarland, born in Elma, Wash., in 1877, the son of Washington pioneers who arrived in the territory in the 1850s, also served Kirkland as a police judge, justice of the peace and apparently a town council member from 1923-27.

By 1928, the family had moved to Renton, where he was also appointed a police judge. Files from Seattle newspaper stories, one about his 50th anniversary and another his obituary in 1967, indicate he also worked as a rancher, railroad clerk and as a miner during the Klondike Gold Rush in the Yukon. He had also lived along the Washington Coast, at Pacific Beach, Quinault and La Push.

But at one time here in Kirkland he operated McFarland’s Ferry Lunch, offering meals, ice cream, candies, soft drinks and tobacco.  I love the sign at the bottom of the window: “Seattle Ice Cream, Cream of Quality Creams.”

This photo now resides in the archives of the , donated in 2007 by John McFarland’s grand-daughter, Barbara Baker Zimmerman. Society President Loita Hawkinson, who so kindly researched this enigmatic early Kirkland retailer for Patch, says an Eastside Journal story indicates “Jack” closed his shop by 1925.

We could not discover the precise location of the shop, but it must have been in the block of Kirkland Ave just east of the ferry landing, now home to businesses such as and restaurants and . So our “now” photos show both side of the street.

McFarland and his wife Allie, who had three children, celebrated their 50th anniversary in 1953. Their obits seem to indicate they lived out the rest of their lives in Renton.

But for a spell, they ran this curious little shop downtown, now just a page in Kirkland’s colorful history.