HistoryLink Tours

The Alexander House was built in 1902 by Thomas and Caroline Alexander on the eastern shore of Lake Sammamish below the community of Monohon. (Today this location is in the southwestern corner of the city of Sammamish, just east of the East Lake Sammamish Parkway.) Thomas Alexander owned 160 acres of land along the lakeshore, and after his death Caroline opened a picnic resort on their property west of the road, closer to the lake. Alexander’s Resort operated from 1917 to 1985, the longest-lasting of the resorts along the eastern shore of Lake Sammamish and on the Sammamish Plateau during the twentieth century.

A group of Issaquah Historical Society volunteers successfully saved the house when it was threatened by development in the mid-1980s. The structure was moved in 1986, first to a temporary location and then to its present location near Gilman Village. Volunteers completed restoring it in 1989, and it became the home of the Issaquah Visitor’s Center and the Issaquah Chamber of Commerce. A new wing was added in the early 2000s to provide additional space for the chamber.