A Stone Turned

A LITTLE WAY south of the Los Angeles International Airport a beach community rests where the coastline begins its curve west to Rocky Point on the Palos Verdes headland. It is called Redondo Beach, and this is not that Redondo. This is Redondo Redux, or Redondo done again a little way south of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, where the South King County coastline curves west heading for Dash Point.

For obvious reasons, most of King County's first "suburbanites" settled on or very near the shores of Puget Sound or other navigable waterways. Here at this attractive curve in the coastline, Jane and Sam (or Zacharias) Stone made a homestead in the early 1870s and named their dock for themselves: Stone's Landing.

The story of how Stone became Redondo is told by Alan Stein in his www.historylink.org thumbnail history of Federal Way, the beach community's big incorporated neighbor up on the ridge or "highline."

"It wasn't until 1904 that the first store opened at Stone's Landing, owned by Charles Betts. In 1906, a dock collapsed at the landing, killing 13 people who had crowded onto it to await a steamer. Worried about the stigma from the disaster, Mr. Betts recommended that the community change its name to Redondo. Some were hoping that the area would become a recreational destination, just like Redondo Beach in California. In just over 10 years, a bowling alley, dance hall and skating rink were built."

Of course, Stone Beach would not do.

And what an inviting place is the old Redondo depicted in the postcard printed here! A long beach littered with the natural sculpture of driftwood is accessible all along a road (of sand, mostly) that is more pedestrian promenade than thruway for Model Ts.

Paul Dorpat specializes in historical photography and has published several books on early Seattle.