1950 to 1990

Echo Lake Comes of Age:  1940 to 1990

In King County, the new Highway 99 became Aurora Avenue North. Traffic climbed, new businesses came into existence, while older businesses evolved. What had once been fuel and feed stores became nurseries and drugstores. Restaurants catered to the ever-increasing number of residents and visitors.  

Shoreline School District was formed in 1944, and soon the Echo Lake area had a new identity as a part of something larger and cohesive.  During the 1950's, Echo Lake became one of THE places to go!  Folks from the Big City of Seattle would drive out into the country, to take advantage of the rural pleasures of Echo Lake.

Certified swimming lessons from the Edmonds School District were held at Echo Lake Bathing Beach in the summers of the late 1950s and 1960s, and school bus loads of kids plunged into the waters.  The Butzke family still ran the bathing beach, and made sure rules were followed (such as how far children must be able to swim, unassisted, before they were allowed to go out to the diving raft).

The photograph to the right shows students lining up for Red Cross swimming lessons at the beach, ca 1964. They would pay admission, change their clothes, and dive into the lake! The buildings in the distance may be imports from the Seattle World's Fair in 1962; when the fair closed, many of the structures were sold.