History

In 1917 the Puget Mill Company, looking for a way to lessen the tax burden of their logged off lands, developed the planned community of Alderwood Manor, Washington. To promote this new community located halfway between Seattle and Everett, they developed a 30-acre Demonstration Farm which included a hatchery, as well as demonstration gardens and orchards.

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The Seattle-Everett Interurban trolley

Potential residents came from all over the United States and Canada. Some would arrive on the Interurban Railway that ran between Seattle and Everett. Once on the Demonstration Farm, they would be shown how they could make a living raising chickens on the 5 acres they were considering purchasing. Soon Alderwood Manor was one of the largest egg producing regions in the United States.

For twenty-plus years the community of Alderwood Manor grew. In 1927 Highway 99 was completed just a few miles west of the Alderwood Manor Town Center. As more people traveled this new south/north highway, the area around it was developed. Several events of the 1930s changed this growing community. The effects of the Depression were felt as egg prices dropped. This caused many families to sell their chicken ranches and the Puget Mill Company closed the Demonstration Farm and sold most of it as one-acre “ranchettes.” In October of 1939 the Interurban Railway ceased operations.

In 1959 the City of Lynnwood incorporated. A few years later Interstate 5 was constructed and opened. In the 1960s an election was held to incorporate Alderwood Manor into its own city. This effort failed and eventually the area of Alderwood Manor Town Center was annexed to the city of Lynnwood. Over the years the farms of Alderwood Manor were subdivided, and most of Alderwood Manor has since become part of Lynnwood, a city that today is home to over 33,000 residents