By Harriet Muhrlein

Part four of a June 1890 article about Kingston, published in Washington magazine (Washington Printing Co.), titled “Kingston, The Monterey of Washington.

The city of Kingston is pushing rapidly forward. There is already constructed and completed one large ocean wharf costing more than $2,000. An accompanying cutline illustrates the beautiful hotel now under process of construction, which will be the Hotel Del Monte of the Puget Sound.

The cove closely resembles the historic bay of Monterey in California, and the town will one day become more popular as a summer resort than Monterey. The bathing facilities here are unequalled on the coast. Washington lacks parks, drives, recreation and resorts.

Here, business men may leave their families for the summer months, returning to them every night if they choose, as it is but an hour’s sail from Tacoma or Seattle. A ferry is negotiating to run hourly from Ballard, Salmon Bay, across the strait to Kingston, in which case tourists from Seattle may make the trip in less than an hour. There is daily mail at Kingston, but the new post office is not erected.

Hotels, shops, restaurants are being prospected and contracted on every hand. Excursion parties will be run this summer, and thousands of weary mortals will cast off the cankering cares of business as they wander on the shining sands strewn with curious shells or under the shade of great alders, willows, cottonwoods, or blossoming dogwoods that line the shores of Cottage Park.

This column is brought to you by the Kingston Historical Society. Our first meeting of 2013 will be in the Kingston Community Center on Jan. 23 at 10 a.m. Please come and share with us. Address: P.O. Box 333, Kingston, WA 98346.