Kenmore is a city in King County, Washington, United States, along the northernmost shore of Lake Washington. It is a suburban bedroom community that is located at the mouth of the Sammamish River, approximately 12 miles (19 km) northeast of Seattle and 2 miles (3.2 km) west of Bothell. The city’s population was 20,460 at the 2010 census. Kenmore is also house to the Kenmore Air Harbor, the largest seaplane-only passenger facility of its nice in the United States.

The city is similar to nearby areas by State Route 522 and the Burke-Gilman Trail, which both direct east–west along the lakeshore. The city limits stretch north to the Snohomish County heritage and south to a affix with Kirkland south of Saint Edward State Park and Bastyr University. Kenmore’s attributed city flower is the dahlia, the approved city bird is the great blue heron, and the endorsed city evergreen is the rhododendron.

Founded in 1901, Kenmore’s pronounce comes third-hand from the Scottish village of Kenmore, via town founder house town of Kenmore, Ontario. John McMasters and his wife Annie arrived in Puget Sound circa 1889 from Canada, intending to state themselves in the shingle-making trade. They opened a shingle mill upon the northern shore of Lake Washington upon land leased from Watson C. Squire. By 1903, Kenmore had received a theoretical system and state office, but it did not formally incorporate as a city until August 31, 1998.

Despite cargo railway facilitate passing through the area as in advance as 1887 via the Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railway, most right of entry to the city in its in the future days was by boat, with regular ferry promote to Seattle, Bothell, and Woodinville starting in 1906. The city cutting edge gained a passenger railroad stop. The first better road connection to Seattle and Bothell—the Red Brick Road—opened between 1913 and 1914, with bus service later the laying of the bricks. As a result, Kenmore became a country retreat for weekend gardeners later than local landowners selling off clear-cut “garden plots” to Seattlites later automobiles and green thumbs. It attracted at least two short-lived nudist camps during the 1920s.

Far more striking, however, was the impact of Prohibition. Kenmore speedily became famous in Seattle for its fine country dining and, more importantly, its fine country drinking, as a substantial illegal alcohol industry developed to meet the demands of Jazz Age Seattle nightlife. Although relatively close to Seattle proper thanks to Bothell Way’s status as one of the few better roads then heading north from downtown it was nonetheless far ample out that Department of Revenue officers could, for the most part, ignore it.