(December 30, 2015)
The old hotel in Glendale was recently torn down to make way for a new waterfront park on South Whidbey. (The Whidbey Camano Land Trust purchased the property in July 2015.)
The ‘hotel’ was actually a post office, general store, living quarters, and for a short time, lodgings for guests. It was built in 1911 by the Peterson brothers, who purchased the land from James and Jane Peck, who in turn had purchased it from a native American scout named Leonard, who had settled there in 1890. (The area was originally known as Leonard’s Landing.) The Pecks built a cabin and a small general store. They also enlarged the dock which Leonard had built.
Glendale was named in honor of their granddaughter, little Edna Glen, born in 1906, daughter of their son, Ernest Peck. Ernest and his brother, Harry, were in their mid-twenties when they moved to South Whidbey with their parents.
Edna Glen Peck, when reminiscing about her childhood wrote that, “My mother wouldn’t let me walk through the woods to the nearest school because of bears, and possibly wolves, so I was sent to an Everett school, going to and from on the Fairhaven, which would stop offshore if flagged down by folks in a rowboat.”
“Our water supply came from the creek, and I would fish in it using a bent pin,” she added.
If you enjoy learning about local history, why not join the South Whidbey Historical Society? Join online at: http://southwhidbeyhistory.org/join-2
