Heritage Corner is a weekly feature of the Bellevue Reporter. Material is provided by the

Eastside Heritage Center.

In honor of the upcoming Strawberry Festival (June 28-29 at Crossroads Park), all of the Heritage Corners this month will be devoted to the Festival’s history.

Kirkland Caravans to Strawberry Festival

Bellevue’s first Strawberry Festival (in 1925) was an unqualified success, and it was apparent that the event would be repeated annually.

Bellevue’s neighbors to the north were determined to get in on the act. See if you can spot a few hints of inter-community rivalry in the following 1927 excerpt from the Kirkland-based East Side Journal:

“…the Kirkland caravan starts to roll into Bellevue, and when it comes there is no room for anything else on the highway. Led by a squad of state highway patrolmen, upwards of one hundred and fifty carloads of Kirklandites, with noisemakers of all kinds, banners, balloons, and all that goes to round out a festival occasion and with a screeching of horns, pour into Bellevue and from then on Kirkland has captured the festival.”

For whatever reason, perhaps the Great Depression, or perhaps the novelty of the automobile had worn off, the last Kirkland caravan occurred in 1931.

To learn more about Bellevue and Eastside history, contact the Eastside Heritage Center at 425-450-1049 or visit www.EastsideHeritageCenter.org.