Mercer Island, as its name states, is located on a 5 mile by 2.5 mile island of 4,057 acres in the middle of magnificent Lake Washington. The island is only 2 miles from shore to shore and within easy access of Seattle along the I-90 Bridge. Before the coming of whites, indigenous people believed that the island was inhabited by evil spirits. Local legend had it that each night the island would sink into the lake only to reappear each morning. Human habitation came about when white settlers, like the Mercer brothers, challenged that belief. In the 1900’s C.C. Calkins built the Island’s first ferry landing and hotel. It wasn’t until 1940, that progressive Eastsiders like Miller Freeman and George Lightfoot were successful in getting a bridge built across the lake, that Mercer Island began to boom. Before the bridge was completed, the population was about 1,200. By the time it was incorporated, in 1960, it was at 12,000.

Like its namesake, the English town of Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle was built on the foundation of coal mining. Settled in 1869 between Bellevue, Renton, and the Cougar Mountain area of Issaquah, Newcastle had a larger population than Seattle in the 1800’s. The mines of the mountain sent 13 million tons of coal to the port city for worldwide shipment in their day. In the early 1990’s a group of citizens sought political autonomy from King County and 2,865 acre Newcastle incorporated in September 1994. Modern day Newcastle is being rediscovered and experiencing substantial growth over the last several years.