Alderwood Manor Case Study

The name Alderwood is most commonly associated in the modern day context, as the mall complex located in Lynwood, Washington. However in the early 20th century, Alderwood Manor was a site of great aspiration for a prospering agricultural community outside of the greater Seattle area. The story of the Alderwood Manor community illustrates a period of time greatly influenced by the industrious timber corporations, world wars, and city expansion in Washington State history. Alderwood Manor, as advertised and market nationwide by the Puget Mill Company, was stump land logged off by Puget Mill and sold off to aspiring farmers. Advertising sparked population from 22 to 1463 from 1917 to 1922.1 1920’s Alderwood Manor was home to the second most productive

“…all [the] publicity about the five acre plots that Puget Mill [Company] was setting up and of course the Demonstration Farm was there to show people what they could do on five acres, like fruit trees, and they put the chickens and all the flowers and the gardens, vegetable gardens and fruit trees and nut trees and everything was on the Demonstration Farm for people [to learn]…”4 Puget Mill worked hard to create an image of potential income prosperity for residents and an environment with tools, such as the Demonstration Farm, to supplement an adequate agricultural industry in the community. This indicates that in the eyes of residents, the Demonstration Farm by Puget Mill provided settlers with confidence that sustain agriculture was obtainable with hard

While their accounts provide a valuable insight in the history of the area, their insight lacks an objective outlook on the overall failure of the farming community. The history of Alderwood reflects a period of Washington state history that allowed citizens to immerse themselves back into the country lands and experience the natural landscape. While the failure to cultivate the land, as exemplified by the Alderwood Manor community, indicates that people of the early 20th century had a very poor understand of land use and ecology of the Pacific Northwest. For those fooled by the Puget Mill Company into purchasing land of poor arability, this must have been a harsh reality to admit, and may return as undocumented. Yet the record does reflect that these setters, who retained faith in the potential success of their stump lands, worked hard to produce a successful income, even if that illusion never reached its latent