Totem Lake
Real Estate around Seattle
Totem Lake Update – Kirkland’s armpit no more.
I wrote the below post in May of 2015. Much has happened since. Scroll down to see the update.
What’s in a name?
Totem Lake is the name of a somewhat defunct shopping mall north-east of downtown Kirkland. I can find no evidence that the mall’s name has any historical significance. Seattle is named after an Indian chief and the mall is not far from the Sammamish river named after an Indian tribe. None of that has anything to do with the mall’s history.
There is a small lake nearby, known today as Totem Lake. I thought the lake gave the mall its name but it’s the other way around. The lake is named after the mall. In fact, the Kirkland neighborhood itself is named after the mall – Totem Lake.