- City:
- Kirkland, WA
- Site Type:
- Civic Facilities
- New Deal Agencies:
- Work Relief Programs, Works Progress Administration (WPA)
Description
“[T]he historic Kirkland Cannery building [was] built during the Great Depression by the Works Progress Administration, or WPA. … The 11,000-square-foot wooden structure was built beginning in 1935 and opened as a free public cannery in 1936.”
Washington State operated four cooperative canneries, all funded by the federal Works Progress Administration (WPA). Canneries at Kirkland and Kent served families from as far away as Everett and Tacoma. Any family with an income of less than $100 a month could bring fruit, vegetables and meat to the cannery to preserve them for the winter. The cannery kept one third of the canned fruits and vegetables and sent them to state and county hospitals and prisons. In 1938, the Kirkland cannery produced 400,000 cans of fruits, vegetables and meat products and assisted 10,300 families and 16 organizations. The Kirkland cannery closed in 2001.
Source notes
Site originally submitted by Evan Kalish on October 26, 2014.
Additional contributions by Tim Bernthal.
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robert krause
According to the Washington Trust for Historic Preservation, the Cannery in Kirkland has been purchased.
https://preservewa.org/News85.aspx
“For nearly a decade, the owner of the Kirkland Cannery sought a preservation-minded buyer interested in rehabilitating the community landmark that had been in his family since the late 1940s. In the waning days of December, the announcement came that Kirkland resident Carl Bradley — president of a family nonprofit foundation — will not only buy the WPA-constructed Cannery Building, but will refurbish its exterior to its historic 1936 appearance. Like any preservation project, formulating a plan is only the first step of a very long process, but it is a crucial one and a cause for recognition and celebration!”