Then & Now: The Old and Renamed 'Doris Cooper Houghton Beach Park'

A champion of Kirkland’s waterfront parks and the city’s first female mayor, the late Doris Cooper, will be honored Saturday in a ceremony to rename after her.

She was a pivotal figure in Kirkland, and the spot on Lake Washington that will be named after her has been an important one as well in the city’s fascinating history.

First let’s give credit where credit is due. Cooper, who died last April at the age of 85, served as mayor of Kirkland from 1984-90 and served on the Houghton City Council before that city was annexed by Kirkland. With an iron will, it is said, she championed the city’s waterfront parks and played a major role in making Houghton Beach Park into the major recreational spot it is today.

At its April 17 meeting, the Kirkland City Council voted unanimously to recognize her by renaming the park “Doris Cooper Houghton Beach Park.” Cooper’s friends and family will join city dignitaries and the public in a ceremony marking the renaming at the park on Saturday at 10 a.m.

Part of the site had served for many years as a Shell and Standard Oil tank farm, and Cooper led a drive in 1967 to convince congressmen and federal officials to appropriate funds to purchase the site for the park, allegedly bombarding U.S. Rep Tom Pelly and Sen. Henry “Scoop” Jackson with letters. The effort was successful.

But we know Houghton Beach was a park long before 1967, and before that as a spot on the shore in front of the homes of the Houghton pioneer Curtis family, who arrived in the late 1800s. Back then it was called Curtis Landing. It is likely that the family, including the famous Lake Washington ferry , built some of the first boats made on the lake -- other than canoes made by native peoples -- right there.

In fact, I remember as a child swimming there with my family in the late 1950s. A favorite family story told my my mother was about taking my brother and I, along with the three boys of close family friends she babysat while on summer break from her studies at the University of Washington, to Houghton Beach. To keep track of us five rambunctious kids in the water, she drew the numbers 1 through 5 on our backs with red lipstick. With a quick glance she could account for us all.

The photos here are one from the Kirkland Heritage Society archives taken in 1973 by Kirkland resident Bob Ely, and the other shot last week from the park's dock.

Anyway, records kept by the Kirkland Parks Department show that Houghton Beach was first a park in 1954. King County deeded the site that year to the City of Houghton, which built a bathhouse and hired lifeguards.

In the late ‘60s, Cooper and friends launched an effort to add 365 feet of shoreline to the park through the acquisition of the adjacent former tank farm, as well as additional shoreline properties in Kirkland. The tank farm acqiusition cost $419,000, with funds from the federal Housing and Urban Affairs Department, a state grant matched by the city, and the rest from a voter-approved bond issue. The acquisition was completed in the early ‘70s.

To tell it now, it all seems pretty easy. But for that time it was a monumental, contentious effort. Longtime Kirkland resident Arnold Berkey, a former Kirkland Park Board member who was also instrumental in acquiring the city’s waterfront parks, told us in an interview last July that the bond issue was fought tooth and nail by business and development interests.

Today Houghton Beach is one of the crown jewels of Kirkland’s highly regarded parks system, at 3.8 acres with 900 feet of Lake Washington shore, a swimming area, dock and swim float, lawns, volleyball court, playground, concession stand, canoe/kayak launch site, paddle-board rentals and public art. Priceless, in other words, and open every single day to the public.

So to say Doris Cooper was a relentless visionary would not be an exaggeration.

“I can’t think of a lady who deserves it more,” said City Council Member Penny Sweet at the April 17 meeting. “I would have changed the name of Lake Washington Boulevard to Doris Cooper Boulevard.”

On Saturday, another page will be turned in history of Kirkland, Houghton and the old shoreline location once known as Curtis Landing.