Renton's factory past: Formerly the 'Gateway to the East,' city looks to diversify

For more than 100 years, Renton has been a big wheel in manufacturing circles.

Renton factories produced trains, planes, wagons, trucks, tanks, bottles, macaroni, ice, twine, coal briquettes, lumber and shingles. It was home to the world's largest paving-brick factory in the early 1900s.

The town that straddles the southeastern shore of Lake Washington has sported nicknames that matched its blue-collar roots — the Brick Capital of the World, the Town of Payrolls and the Birthplace of Modern Commercial Aviation.

But it all began with coal.

Henry Tobin discovered coal in the Renton hills in 1853. That was the same year Adelaide Andrews opened the first school in King County on the Christian Clymer homestead just west of today's Renton Airport.

Tobin and four other men founded the Duwamish Coal Co. but never found financing to begin mining. Instead, Tobin built a sawmill on the Black River in 1854 and with his wife, Diana, staked a claim to 320 acres in what is today's downtown Renton. He died about a year later.

The land that Tobin helped settle had for centuries been a hub for Native American tribes. Duwamish longhouses once stood on what later became the Earlington Golf Course and Renton High School grounds. The area was lush with wildlife.

The Black River, which flowed out of Lake Washington near the airport, was joined by the Cedar, and both rivers flowed into the Duwamish. Tribes from as far north as Alaska arrived in 40-foot canoes to trade near today's Maplewood Golf Course.

Early settlers used the same route for tugboats and paddle-wheelers, coming from Seattle through the Duwamish River, the Black River, then into Lake Washington, the Sammamish River and Lake Sammamish to trade as far inland as Issaquah.

The rivers deposited rich delta soil in the Renton lowlands, creating fertile fields. That's where Tobin's widow and Erasmus Smithers had a prosperous dairy farm after their 1857 marriage.

Yet it was the coal under the hills that provided Renton the impetus to become a town.

William Renton, who made his fortune in timber mills around the Puget Sound area, financed the Renton Coal Co. in 1873. The city was platted two years later and named in his honor.

Coal is king

Coal would be king for more than 50 years. Mine tunnels stretched from today's Interstate 405 almost to Kent.

Unlike nearby mining centers such as Newcastle and Issaquah that shipped coal to other markets, Renton saw its coal used primarily in local manufacturing. Coal fired the Renton Clay Works, for example, which produced building bricks, road pavers and clay pipes for waterlines and sewers.

Another big customer was the Pacific Car and Foundry, which opened in 1907, then burned to the ground, was rebuilt and went on to produce wagons, rail cars and trucks.

The blue-collar workers, a mix of immigrant cultures mostly from Europe, had a reputation for playing hard. At one point in the late 1800s, there were 875 citizens and 18 saloons. It was common for miners to carry buckets of beer underground as part of their lunch.

But they were also civic-minded. The Renton Miners Association organized the first library in 1903.

Dr. Adolph Bronson built a 15-room hospital in 1911 — the first on the Eastside — and for decades seriously injured miners, loggers, sawmill workers and farmers on the Eastside were transported to Renton for medical care.

That same year the city nearly washed away. At 8:30 a.m. on Sunday, Nov. 11, church bells rang out — not calling people to worship but to alert them to a flood. No lives were lost, but the entire flatland of downtown Renton was inundated by the overflowing Cedar and Black rivers.

It was weeks before the town dried out.

'Gateway to the East'

When the Montlake Cut opened in 1916, the lowering of Lake Washington eliminated the Black River. Drained swampland eventually was filled and became home to Boeing.

Although that ended the paddle-wheeler and tugboat traffic, Renton still called itself the "Gateway to the East."

Until the opening of the first floating bridge across Lake Washington in 1940, the name was accurate. Most automobile and truck traffic coming from Seattle to the Eastside and the Cascades went through Renton.

The Seattle & Walla Walla Railroad reached Renton in 1887, and by 1904 the Lake Washington Beltline connected Renton, Bellevue, Kirkland and Woodinville.

Sunset Highway, the first automobile route that connected Seattle to Spokane and points east, ran through Renton.

As car traffic grew and asphalt became the road material of choice, Renton's brick trade waned. Electrical power surged in popularity, and the demand for coal subsided. As the Depression hit, the last Renton coal mines shut down.

But it wasn't long before the city rebounded in a new direction. Less than a mile from the mine entrances, Puget Sound Traction, Light & Power Co. began construction of the Shuffleton Power Plant near today's Gene Coulon Memorial Beach Park.

The steam turbines, powered by waste wood fiber from sawmills called "hog fuel," provided the electricity that replaced coal in homes and factories. One section of the plant was running by 1929, but because of the Depression, Puget Power never built the entire complex. The plant was torn down in 2001.

Racing to Renton

Renton became a mecca for horse-race fans in 1933 when then-Gov. Clarence Martin legalized horse-race betting on March 3. More than 3,000 workers toiled nearly around the clock for 28 days to build Longacres Race Track. The first race was held Aug. 3, 1933, when 11,000 people watched On Rush win the Inaugural Handicap.

The track was dark two summers during World War II. An anti-aircraft gun was set up at the track. The land eventually was sold to Boeing, and the last race was held Sept. 21, 1992.

By 1940, The Boeing Airplane Co. had decided on Renton as the site for a large plant to build seaplanes. During World War II, it switched to B-29 bombers.

The small Bryn Mawr Airport was rebuilt to accommodate the heavier traffic — round-the-clock shifts pushed 1,000 planes out the door to the runway by the end of the war.

The nearby Pacific Car and Foundry, which had built trucks and thousands of boxcars for railroads around the world, began building Sherman tanks.

The influx of workers meant schools went to triple shifts.

Driving at night during the wartime blackout became challenging. Tanks clanked through city streets out to today's Maplewood Golf Course, where they were run up and down Cemetery Hill for field tests. (Cemetery Hill became famous in 1970, when rock star Jimi Hendrix was buried in Greenwood Memorial Park.)

After the war, the city's economy slowed down. Pacific Car and Foundry — which became Paccar in the 1970s — switched back to trucks and rail cars (rail-car production ceased in the early 1980s).

Boeing was harder hit in the postwar years. It closed its Renton plant and went through massive layoffs. The plant reopened in 1948 and in 1954 started producing 707 jets for commercial use.

By 1966, the company employed 38,600 workers at its Renton plant. By 1995, its operations in the city covered 7.7 million square feet.

However, the company that has weathered numerous economic ups and downs during its 80-year history announced in 2002 that it would vacate 2 million square feet of space as it struggled with the impact of a national recession.

The loss reinforced Renton's push to diversify its economic base, which now includes such companies as Valley Medical Center, IKEA, Wizards of the Coast and Classmates.com.

For the 21st century, the city has adopted a new slogan — "Ahead of the Curve" — and is focusing on revitalizing its downtown.

Potential developments, such as an office complex at the Port Quendell sawmill site, could ensure that Renton will continue to stay ahead of any future economic curves.

Sources include Renton Historical Society & Museum Quarterly, "Renton From Coal to Jets" by Morda C. Slauson, and "Renton: Where the Water Took Wing" by David M. Buerge.