Factoria: The Factory Town at I-90 and I-405 That Never Was

Factoria sits where Interstate 90 meets Interstate 405, in south Bellevue. Today it is a mixed-use suburban neighborhood and one of the city's significant commercial districts. Its core is bounded by I-90 to the north, I-405 to the west, Newport Way to the east and Coal Creek Parkway to the south, and Bellevue annexed it in 1993. The name is left over from a plan that never happened. [1]

The land was timber first. During the 1890s, loggers cut large stands of trees on what is now Woodridge Hill, Richards Valley, Newport Shores and the commercial area of Factoria. In the late 1890s the Northern Pacific Railway laid tracks through the largely uninhabited area along the shore of Lake Washington near Mercer Island. [1]

In the early 1900s, a group of Seattle investors led by E. L. Skeel pictured a large industrial center on the ground that is now the interchange of I-405 and I-90. In 1908 Skeel formed the Mercer Land Company and platted several blocks beside the railroad tracks. The town was to be called Mercer. A stove factory was built on the townsite, but it never manufactured a single stove. By 1911 the project was at a standstill. The company, now run by Sarah Kendall with Skeel as secretary, filed a new plat with more blocks and public space, under a name meant to attract major industries: Factoria. [1]

The pitch was big. Promoters promised coal smoke 'belching from hundreds of smokestacks' and expected at least 20 plants to join the existing Factoria Stove and Range Co. Some 15 years later, only the Factoria School had been built. One business did come. In the late 1920s Factoria became the headquarters of the Eastside's growing rabbit industry, and in 1927 an abandoned local factory was converted into a processing plant for canned rabbit meat and fur. [1]

The road made it a crossroads instead. In 1939, work began on an $800,000 highway project that straightened the Sunset Highway between Issaquah and Mercer Island and led to the Lacey V. Murrow Memorial Bridge. The new four-lane highway passed directly through Factoria, where it crossed Lake Washington Boulevard, then the main north-south highway on the Eastside. After the bridge and highway opened in 1940, Factoria became a major crossroads, and in 1950 the 900-car Sunset Outdoor Theatre was built near the intersection. [1]

The freeways finished the job. In the 1960s, construction put Factoria at the junction of I-405 and I-90, and the interchange replaced most of the original townsite. A 42-acre shopping center was announced in July 1961. The mall opened in 1977 as Factoria Square and is now the Marketplace at Factoria, on the original Factoria property. Office buildings of the Factoria Campus stand where the drive-in theater used to be. [1]