Shoreline historian Vicki Stiles, with a hardcover edition of her book, “Shoreline, Washington: From First People to a New City.” (David Mendez/The Osprey)
by David Mendez
You might be living on the site of an old, long-forgotten mink farm. Your home might be standing atop a former strawberry patch. You may be sleeping a stone’s throw away from a castle that once housed a hidden speakeasy.
If you don’t know the history of the land beneath your feet, there’s a good chance that Vicki Stiles might. And that she’s already written about it.
“When I meet people from Shoreline that I haven’t met before, I like to know where they lived because then I want to immediately tell them about the history of where they live,” Stiles told The Osprey. “If they’re brand new, they don’t know the cool things that were happening right around where they live — sometimes right where they live.”
Stiles is the former director of the Shoreline Historical Museum, where she worked for nearly 30 years. This year, the museum published “Shoreline, Washington: From First People to a New City.” The book covers the community known now as Shoreline from its history as a home to native peoples, to its frontier town roots, to its incorporation as a city in 1995 and the modern day, ending with construction of the museum’s newest facilities in 2020.
The book is the fruit of decades of work — and some inspiration from LouAnn Bivens, the author of “Shoreline: or Steamers, Stumps and Strawberries,” a collection of historical essays. “It was really a great introduction to the area, but not comprehensive. She told me, well, you should go back and correct anything that I don’t…maybe you should write another book,” Stiles said. “So, all these things that were in my head and all the history and knowledge and facts we collected, I kept saying, OK, I’m going to write that book.”
That’s the whole purpose of this: To get the history into the hands of citizens and let them go with it. Find out more about your place and write your own history. There’s a book in every single person and their families.”
It took Stiles about three years of work to finish the book following her retirement from the museum in 2021. A native of Bothell — or, as she notes more specifically, Canyon Park before it became part of Bothell — Stiles came to Shoreline in 1992, after obtaining a dual master’s degree in Anthropology and Museum Studies from the University of Washington.
She’s loved museums since the fourth grade, when she was part of a class trip visiting the Burke Museum at the University of Washington. “I don’t know that to me it was so much about the collection, but more about how it connected with people,” Stiles said.
“That’s what I loved about my job…the connection that you made with people and the relationships you develop, helping people understand not only the history of wherever they were from, but also their personal connection to that history,” she said.
For example, Richmond Beach residents are well-acquainted with the neighborhood’s history as the heart of strawberry country. Around 1900, the area was considered western Washington’s largest fruit exporter, and the community took such pride in their prized local crop that the town’s baseball team was known as the “Strawberry Huskers.”
But the berry boom didn’t last long, Stiles said.
“Everybody was growing the same strawberry, the Marshall,” Stiles said. “What happens when a whole place grows the same thing? If one person gets sick, everybody gets sick.” But the Marshall, while drought tolerant, needs very specific conditions and is very susceptible to viruses. “Some people got blight in the ground. Once you have it, you are not growing strawberries anymore,” Stiles said. By 1920, Richmond Beach had only three fruit farmers listed in that year’s census — down from 16 in the 1910 census.
The story of Richmond Beach’s berry business is included in her book, as well as stories about Shoreline’s many other neighborhoods, its local parks and landmarks, its schools and major roads — and even the origin of the “Shoreline” name, which was coined by a fifth grader in 1944. The book’s index is overflowing with names of people and places who have made their mark on Shoreline, from land developers to civil rights advocates.
On Saturday, Oct. 3, from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., Stiles and book designer Barry Hansen will speak at the King County Library System’s Shoreline Branch to discuss the creation of a history book from the standpoints of design and content. The two will then take part in an audience Q&A. Copies of “Shoreline, Washington: From First People to a New City” will be available for signing and purchase afterwards. Find more information at KCLS.
What’s not included, however, is a history of the area’s less savory elements.
“You might notice in this book that I didn’t put any crime in,” Stiles said, adding that it felt “extraneous.” Though the history does, indeed, exist. “It was lawless out here. They had one King County cop for this whole area, and he had some deputies. But mostly what they did is sit up at this gas station on the county line and play cards.”
Stiles may take a crack at writing a history of crime in Shoreline before long. It’s not as if she’s lacking for content. “I loved the research so much, and I kept thinking ‘oh, I need to put this in, oh, I’m missing that!’ It was really fun to get it down on paper,” Stiles said.
“I just hope it gets into the hands of citizens. I’m hoping that people take it and use it to do their own research,” she said, adding that the book — in addition to being for sale in print online and at the museum itself — is available for free in its entirety at the historical museum’s website.
“That’s the whole purpose of this: To get the history into the hands of citizens and let them go with it. Find out more about your place and write your own history,” Stiles said. “There’s a book in every single person and their families.”